Monday 22 September 2008

Spinning without a plan

It would help if I could decide what I wanted to use the resultant yarn for when I set out to do some spinning. Sometimes, though it is better to see how the fibre behaves spun thick or thin and take it from there. It's no fun battling with it, much better to go along with it. These English wool tops fall into this category being better suited to a fairly thick single.

This is 225m of 3 ply weighing 158g. There is also a small amount of 2 ply in the same colours and 135m of 2 ply in the heather colourway weighing 80g.

I still have the same amount to do again from the last dyeing session, the red and green. I'm not getting a very even result with this yarn, but hopefully it will look okay knitted up.

The cabled spiral sweater is progressing, I'm up to the yoke now - picture next time when there will be cables.

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Morning Surf finished

It's done and blocked, measuring 55" x 7". I didn't stretch it very much, so it could have been bigger, but I'm pleased with it. It didn't even take me very long to knit, it's nice to have something finished quickly for a change.

The photo is of just one sleeve, but as of this evening, there is another one as well. Next I'll cast on for the body of the Cabled Spiral sweater by Norah Gaughan. I ripped the yarn (Sirdar Salsa) from the Weekend Sweater which had been hibernating for some time, and which I eventually realized was a bit small and I didn't really want a tight fitting sweater. The Cabled Spiral is mainly stocking stitch until the yoke when it gets interesting.

This is the current state of the crocheted Rosemary sweater, the longer sleeve needs a few more rounds, and then I need to make the other one match. I need to work out a way to make the neck opening less revealing because I don't want to have to wear a camisole underneath necessarily. I had made the opening higher than the pattern stated, but it wasn't quite enough even then.

I had a little dyeing session at the weekend, this is about 500g of english wool tops which I dyed in four different semi solid shades. So far, I've spun up about 2oz of the brown. At the moment , the plan is to make a 3 ply with it, maybe for a hat. Other ideas include spinning a thick singles yarn for a change.

The brown was dyed using leftover unexhausted dyes from previous sessions, after all, brown is usually the result of mixing all sorts of colours isn't it? There was separation of some of the constituent shades, giving this mixture shown clearly in the predrafted tops.