Tag Archives: handspun

Baby Knitting and Webcam Photos

The problem with trying to blog near the winter solstice and working an 8 to 5 is that there isn’t much time to take pictures. And these days, blogs need pictures, but since I don’t have currently have a personal life during daylight hours, tonight we’re having fun with webcam photos!

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Yes, I’m even wearing a heating pad, because my neck has a couple of giant knots in it hurts like the dickens.

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Here’s a shot with with better light, where I just look tired. Growing a person is hard work. Did I mention I’m pregnant? I can’t remember, but if not, I’m almost 21 weeks! To celebrate, let’s talk about knitting baby things.

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This is a Garter Stitch Baby Kimono in progress, knit in Vice Yarns Plain Jane. Click the link, because my webcam is not doing the colors justice. This sweater is going to be bright. I’ll never lose my baby when he or she is wearing this sweater. We’ll all be so distracted by this sweater, we won’t be able to divert our eyes.

Not everything I’m knitting for the baby is quite so loud. I’m working on a blanket, which I feel is an obligatory project for a baby, even though I’m not really the biggest blanket-knitting fan. It’ll be cute and totally worth it once it’s finished, but I am certainly not going to be the kind of knitting mother than knits her child many or large blankets.

The only other thing I’ve knit for the baby is a cabled Sunnyside Cardigan out of cormo yarn that I spun. The roving was my Juniper Moon Farm Spinner’s Share that I spun way before there was any thought of a baby. (This picture is also form October, hence the absence of webcam-ness.)

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The sweater is still in this state, ends not woven in, buttons in a ziplock back next to it in a drawer. I still have 4+ months to finish it, right?

I’m trying to add to my list of baby things to make. Since this little one is due midspring, I am thinking I’ll need some hats and booties for cold mornings and evenings, but nothing too heavy. Is there anything else I should plan on making? I have to confess I love making sweaters, especially wee ones, but I realize that an April baby only needs so many sweaters. What are your favorite baby knits?

Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and… Ricky?

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I’m currently spinning some lovely angora from a rabbit named Ricky. This will hopefully become part of a hat for one of the librarians I help out a couple mornings a week at my local library. I’ll ply this with a couple strands of cormo before I am done.

Susie’s all spun up

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The shetland roving from Gilead Fiber Farm was a delight to spin up. It was probably the fastest yarn I’ve ever spun, start to finish. I filled two bobbins in an afternoon and plied it the next morning. It washed up brighter and stunningly lustrous and so very soft. I’m not sure what I’ll make with it but I definitely want to get some more. EDIT: I had two unlabeled rovings that I brought home from SPA and it seems this may actually be Varitek. Confirmation will come in a week when I visit the farm. This will be great news as there is plenty of Varitek left.

back to the spinning

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I never fail to come home from SPA ready to spin spin spin. This is some Shetland roving from miss Susie (the sheep) who is sweet as pie and much less shy after having a lamb last spring. Riley thinks Susie smells delightful!

Pygora

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Ready to ply

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I finished up the purple angora and I’m ready to ply. I’m combining the %100 angora (grapey purple), angora/wool blend (blue purple) and corriedale (grey) into a 3-ply yarn which may or may not get overdyed purple after it’s been plied.

Working On: Funchal Moebius

I’ve been working on this since last year– November 20, 2011– but things have ground to a stop.

This pattern, Kate Davies’ Funchal Moebius, is graphic, striking, and a simple knit. Since it was released last year during Wovember, I decided that I’d use my own fingering-weight handspun to make it– the gold is some Corriedale that came with my spinning wheel, and the white is Tunis from Infinity Farm in Cedar Grove, NC (I wrote about going fishing there, a few years ago).

However, therein lies the problem: I’ve done 4 pattern repeats out of 14, and I’ve run out of the Corriedale yarn. I sure can’t buy anything like it.

I’ve got plenty of roving, luckily, but it’ll be a challenge to replicate yarn I spun 2 years ago. We’ll see how it goes.


Vermont Dreaming

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This is the yarn I spun from the first half of the roving I dyed in Vermont a couple weeks ago. It’s very slow going as this is not the best roving to make laceweight yarn with but there wasn’t much and I really wanted enough yarn for a project. I’ve got about 270 yards from the first half so by the time I’m done, I should have enough for a little project of some sort.  Thanks again Kristen for an excellent and fabulously fun workshop!

Tour de Fleece

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I missed the first week of Tour de Fleece (in which we spin every day the riders ride during the Tour de France) but now that I’m home I’m squeezing in as much spinning as I can while at the same time catching up on all the things that accumulate when one is away on vacation. I’ve started off with a bobbin full of Tarragon’s roving. This is the tail end of her ’09 vintage fleece, cormo x Romney. I’m not sure if I’ll do a 2-ply or a 3-ply but I’ve decided to switch back to the Shale roving which is 50:50 BFL:alpaca. I’m close to finishing and I’d like to know how much yardage I have so I can start perusing sweater patterns. My initial goal for TdF is just to finish spinning and plying Shale’s roving.

Priorities


I am swatching for a belated birthday gifts. I just bought buttons for it this evening. The buttons are great, the buying buttons at Joanns was not a pleasant experience. It reinforced my dire longing to have a really good local yarn / craft shop so that I never have to ever enter Joanns again.


Alpaca yarn I finished spinning yesterday. 7 oz / 200g of blacker than black DK weight yarn. What should I do with it?


I finished my Ginny Weasley socks! I love them.

I have about 1000 projects I would like be working on, but these are my priorities right now. What are you working on?