Fiber Friday - Mourning Dove

Another holiday vacation spin complete. This one started out as eight ounces of Merino wool from the Yarn Wench. I ended us with a nice fat skein of 3-ply yarn that should be enough for a nice little project. I'm just not sure what it will be yet.

I took the fiber and split it into lengthwise strips and then weighed out three equal piles. I spun each pile onto a separate bobbin. I love the idea of the yardage I can get with eight ounces of fiber as opposed to four. But, you have to remember that every steps takes longer too.

Once I had the singles finished; I plied all three together. The plying is the part that always seems to take the longest to me. I have found that I'm most successful with 3-plies when I keep each single going into the ply at an even angle and rate.

In the end, I do think the final yarn was worth the extra time. I ended up with enough for a nice little project. I' not sure what the project will be yet, but until then I"m happy just looking at this skein.

My plies still aren't extremely even though. I think what I need to do is slow down and do everything a little more consistent. But I do have a hard time doing that. Each time I sit down at the wheel to spin, I seem to begin with intentions to try for a very consistent yarn. But not too far a long into to it, everything becomes a race to finish.

I'm not sure that I plan on doing anything about it for the most part. I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm ending up with some yarn I'm willing to use - that is what is important anyway.

Geddesburg Handspun Yarn

Fiber Content: Merino wool
Fiber Source: Yarn Wench
color: Mourning Dove
Yardage: 490 yards
Weight: 8 ounces
WPI: 12-14 wraps per inch
Notes: 3-ply yarn

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas

and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Sherman and Scarlett

Swissy Sunday

Since our recent visits to Petsmart have been going well, we decided it was time to try the dog park again. So everyone got up early on Saturday and headed out to the park.

This time went much better than last time. Scarlett was still a little nervous around the other dogs and spent a lot of time hiding behind Brad and me. She's poke her head out to bark now and then and she did greet several dogs.

She did love the attention she got from all the dog owners and the kids that wanted to come and pet her. We did make the visit short and made sure everything ended on a positive note. But you can see in the last picture that Sherman still needed a nap on the way home.

Fiber Friday - Holiday Tencel

This is definitely not the old shiny tinsel that got hung on the Christmas tree, but it is a 50/50 merino tencel blend. It also definitely has a sheen too. It was hard to get a picture that didn't shine so much. The yarn isn't quite as shiny in person as the pictures seem to show.

The tencel did make the fiber easy to draft and spin. Almost too easy really, it was very slippery and I missed the grab that 100% wool has when drafting. The tencel does give the finished yarn a nice drape and it is very smooth and silky.

I do think that this will make a nice scarf or something, although it will have to be small because I didn't get much yardage. I'm wondering is tencel is denser than wool and therefore less fiber for the same weight. Does anyone know? I'll have to go research that.

I didn't get a picture of the fiber before spinning this time. I was ready to spin something and this was sitting on the table. My fiber room is a huge mess and I have been avoiding going in there. I do have to have It all straight before the holidays since we are having company so I plan on tackling that this weekend.

Geddesburg Handspun Yarn

Fiber Content: 50% super wash merino / 50% tencel
Fiber Source: http://www.dkknits.etsy.com/
Color: Tropical Holiday
Yardage: 250 yards
Weight: 4 ounces
WPI: 14 wraps per inch
Notes: 2-ply yarn;

Fiber Friday - Cabled Yarn

I finally got the remaining singles from my SAFF classes off my bobbins. I decided to use the singles and make a 4-ply cabled yarn.

I took the two bobbins of singles and plying those together for a 2-ply yarn. I used my ball winder to get the two ply off the bobbin. I weighed the ball on my digital kitchen scale and then wound half of that weight into a second ball. I then plied the two balls together.

The only trick to remember about making a cabled yarn is the direction you need to ply. If you spin the singles with Z twist (clockwise), the first time you ply will be using S twist (counter clockwise). When you are ready to ply again you go back to using Z twist.

The results yarn is rounder than the other 2 and 3 ply yarns I've spun. It is also a bit firmer. I think I'd like to try it out sometime with two different colored singles instead of a variegated ones. I imagine it would be easier to see how are four plies are twisted together.

Geddesburg Handspun Yarn
Fiber Content: Peruvian Merino
Fiber Source: Black Bunny Fiber Club
Color: French Lavendar
Yardage: 176 yards
Notes: 4-ply cabled yarn

Frankenscarf

I've recently started two new scarf projects. Both are part of the Traveling Scarves group on Ravelry. The idea is that a group of people get together and set up a few guidelines or a general theme and start knitting their own scarf. The scarf segment is then sent to the next person on the group list and then that person adds a segment to the scarf. This continues until everyone in the group has worked on the scarf and then the scarf is sent back to its original owner.

You can send additional instructions with your scarf and a notebook so everyone can include information about their individual addition to the scarf. It sounded like an interesting idea so I decided to try it out. When I explained the whole project to Brad - he said that I'd end up with some type of Frankenscarf with everyone using different yarns and techniques. I said that was really kind of the idea, but I kind of like the name so I'm keeping it.

The first group I joined has no special theme or yarn requirements. I did set a few of my own guidelines in the little journal I sent along with the scarf. I asked everyone to use a DK or sport weight yarn similar to what I used in my first segment. I also asked that blues, purples, greens, and browns be the only colors used and that the color shade coordinated with my starting segment.

The yarns I used for the first part of the scarf are Rowan Felted Tweed (green) and Manos Silk Blend. I used the Welting Fantastick pattern from one of the Barbara walker treasuries. I'm really please with how it turned out. It was a little hard to send it off for someone else to finish. But I didn't have enough yarn to knit an entire scarf. I do have enough saved to add a matching piece to the other end once the scarf is returned to me.

There are twelve people in this group so it will take quite a while to get my scarf back. There is about two weeks allotted to knit each segment so I think I'm looking at at least six months before I see the return of this scarf. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

The second group I join has more of a central theme. The idea for this one is to use up leftover sock yarn or other fingering weight yarn. There are 17 people in this group, so I'm not expecting to see my scarf back until late next year.

I started my segment of this scarf with 10 rows of seed stitch from a blackish skein of Socks That Rock. I'm going to send this skein along with my scarf and ask that everyone knit 10 rows of seed stitch after they add their colored segment.

My first segment is knit from some leftover Wollmeise sock yarn. I used another pattern from one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries, but this time opted to try out a cable pattern. This pattern is called the banjo pattern. It was one I hadn't seen and I liked the use of circles so thought I'd give it a try.

So both scarves are now in the mail. It is going to be hard to wait for them but I'll have a bunch of other scarves to see and work on in the meantime.