Three new yarns, see how they're spun...

I do have some knitting projects going, but they're either blocking (to be photographed soon) or they belong in the category of secret holiday knitting, so... here's a spinning update! I've got three new yarns for you:


Handspun Yarn I: Graphite

Fiber: SWTC Black Diamonds Carbonized Bamboo Roving
Stats: 440 yards (59 g), ~25 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: single ply




This stuff was slippery and a bit fly-away (picture little cotton candy tufts trying to escape every which way if I pre-drafted much), but lots of fun to spin.

It's so shiny!

While I decided to leave it as a single, I think it would make an excellent (and more robust) 2 ply as well.









Moana stood still long enough for me to snap this photo of her modeling the yarn:




Handspun Yarn II: Lame Duck Mallard

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Superwash Bluefaced Leicester Roving, October 2008 Spunky Club colorway "Lame Duck Mallard"
Stats: 375 yards (115 g), ~17 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: 3 ply




I think Boogie was right on with her interpretation of the Mallard duck's colors:



Moana wanted me to leave this yummy fiber unspun for lounging, snuffling, and kneading purposes:




However, I prevailed and managed to steal the fiber back from her (although I had to keep an eye out for her while spinning, because she really loves this stuff). Here are the three bobbins of singles:






...And the 3 ply:








As usual, this yarn has been fully Bug tested and approved.













Here's an example of why there are fewer pictures of Moana on the blog. I got just these two photos before she jumped up and started dancing around, then fled the scene (she had been napping peacefully moments earlier):





Handspun Yarn III: Shallow Water

Fiber: All Spun Up Bluefaced Leicester Roving
Stats: 442 yards (120 g), ~16 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: 2 ply







This color palette reminds me of the look of shallow water over pale sand near the edge of a lake or the ocean - a lovely turquoise tinged with greens and golds.







For some reason, Bug seems to wash the color variation out somewhat with his dark-chocolatey self. He doesn't mind - it still makes a pretty decent pillow.








Have a great week :)

Ribbons of squooshy amethyst-colored lace...

Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery
My handspun yarn (made from Foxhill Farm fiber), 100% Cormo Wool (413 yards / 104 g per skein), 1 skein
US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks circular needles

Happy day after Thanksgiving :)

I pretty much followed the pattern for this scarf with a minor exception. I cast on and worked 19 repeats of the 24 row chart, but only had yarn enough to knit a single final row (the pattern specifies two) before binding off. These knit rows serve to stabilize the edge a bit, and it seems that the pattern should have called for two knit rows after the initial cast on as well (both for parallelism and added stability). I'm not sure why they're only called for at the end.



Other than this, I thought the pattern was lovely and worked fairly well with my handspun yarn, which had a tendency to stripe-up rather randomly. I think the pattern is simple enough that it doesn't get terribly lost in the busy-ness of the yarn, although it would also be gorgeous in a more subtly varying color palette.

I used this yarn that I spun back in April:



...from this fiber:



The Cormo produced a super squishy yarn, so the scarf (as you might imagine) feels wonderfully soft!

Here it is blocking, so you can see the whole thing at once - it's about 10 inches wide and 63 inches long:



Even though I stuck pins all over my blocking scarf, Moana still managed to traipse all over it :)




Here are some close-ups:


"right" side
"wrong" side



...and now for some cat modeling:








Have a great weekend!