isn’t the weather just brilliant today? the last grasp of summer and me sitting on the balcony with bare feet, in short pants, tshirt and a very stupid hat doing some spinning.
i’m spinning merino at the moment in a variety of berry colours: pink, rose, purple, aubergine (oh well, that would be a vegetable colour )…
for the video i used one of the songs i was listening to while spinning. “falling slowly” from glen hansard. i recently discovered the movie “once” and fell in love with the music! i can’t help it, i always fall for the small, non-blockbuster, low-budget, beautiful movies have a look:
here is the result of my spinning sunny afternoon:
oh, and i don’t want to deprive you of the pleasure to see me in my stupid hat protecting my show white like skin from the evil september sun
pattern: lacy baktus – a very easy yet effectful pattern. i prefere the lace version because it looks more interesting than the normal baktus.
yarn: my own handspun. purple paradise. the first thing i produced you could actually call “yarn” it’s shetland roving and could be a bit softer. but it will be really warm
these photos were taken pre-blocking because i wanted to use the sunny weather to take phots. it’s drying now and has become bigger – especially in length.
this is a cardigan for my friend kevin’s little boy, callum. he is just 3 weeks old now so i guess he’ll have some room to grow into it.
aren’t those buttons adorable? the friend i was shopping with that day and me both fell in love with them on first sight and i had to have them for this cardigan. it gives it the special something
the cardi will make its way to london by post tomorrow i guess kev is too busy with the baby and moving house at the moment so that he won’t regularly check this blog and sneak a peek before it arrives in wooly person so… i’m going to post it now.
pattern: Offset Wraplan by Sara Morris. i knit size 6-9 months but it turned out a little small i think
yarn: wolle rödel siena. 100% merino extrafine superwash. 2 balls of the dark colour, 1 of the lighter contrast colour. it’s the same yarn i used for my yellow pullover – very, very soft and stretchy as well.
buttons: cutest sheep buttons in the world bought at karstadt in frankfurt
these socks are for my dad. he chose this yarn himself when i sent them to buy wollmeise yarn for me at the handwerkermarkt in sindelfingen. so i’m not to be blamed – the man wanted red socks himself! he sais it’s dalai lama colour and that’s perfect because he wants to wear them when he goes to his weekly sessions to the buddhist temple in stuttgart. that’ll keep his feet warm while his mind is engaged with more spiritual matters
i hope they fit. he didn’t try them on yet.
yarn: wollmeise twin, 80% merino superwash / 20% polyamide, colourway: granatapfel. the wollmeise was a pleasure to knit – as always!
this is my newest yarn. i spun it for my colleague reingard and she got it on her birthday party on saturday night so i can show it off now she’s a red fan, so it had to be red!
it is 80% merino and 20 white mulberry silk. i wanted to spin lace weight and ended up with ca. 621m and 100g.
i’m so happy with the result. it’s incredibly soft and shiny. the silk makes it look so glossy, especially in the sun.
this is “reinsche’s red” pre-plying. here you can see how the fibre looked before spinning:
and this is the result:
i’m going to spin about the same amount again so it’s enough for a big shawl or scarf i’ll keep you posted what becomes of it…
in my stash i have the same amount (200g) of this fiber in green which is more my colour. i’m looking forward to spinning it for myself. it really is very soft and a pleasure to spin!
here it is. i couldn’t resist any longer and had a very spinning weekend it is 100% merino superwash, colourway “neapolitan”, 108g, 455m.
on this photo you can see me plying and watching heroes series 3 on the internet. if you have a close look you can see mohinder
hm, here you can see a strange thing. there were some almost white parts where two white singles met. these white parts are gone. when i washed the yarn after plying there was a lot of colour in the water. i guess all the white parts were re-coloured in a slightly orange/pink shade. i like it anyway, but i would have liked the white bits too…
these lovely fibers moved in yesterday. they are from zarzuela’s fibers. i’ve had jessica as a friend in flickr for some time and saw her handdyed fiber there. so i just thought i should give it a go now and place an order. and this is what the postman brought me (well, not exactly as customs took the parcel hostage until i payed 19% tax. boohh.
anyway. look at those beauties… believe me, they are just as soft and beautiful as they look
it’s (from left to right and top to bottom):
lovestruck, 6oz merino
snowy wood in january, 6oz merino
neapolitan, 4oz superwash merino
blue jeans & leather shoes, 4oz superwash merino
and of course i couldn’t stop myself from starting… here’s my neapolitan progress. i’m spinning 2 singles and want to ply them to get a sock weight yarn…. it’s so much fun to spinn this soft fiber!
tadaaa. my first finger gloves ever from handspun yarn. i’m really happy with the result. the yarn feels nice and is really warm. although the pattern was really good and i did my best to avoid it, i had holes between all the fingers. but i just sewed them close when weaving in the ends and it’s hardly visible anymore… i hope the yarn won’t felt too much when i wear and wash them. the winter can come!
i bought a mixed package of 5 different shades of purple at the wollschaf online shop and thought this might be perfect to spin self striping sock yarn…
so i divided every piece of roving into 8 parts and started spinning them alternating:
then i navajo plied the singles to get the – hopefully – stripe effect. the end result is 413m and 101g.
i’m totally spinning mad at the moment. so this is what i just finished. it’s 100% merino space roving from huppertz. the yarn turned out 435m and 100g.
it was fun to spin because the roving is already in small strips you can use just as it is. no separating, no predrafting. i wasn’t too keen on the colours when i saw them live for the first time, but it always looks completely different when spun up. it also turned out a lot shinyer than i would have expected.
i called it “thunderstorm” because i think it looks like one
the colours are a little darker in real life, like on the photo where you can see the complete skein.
i’m thinking about knitting knotty gloves from the yarn. what do you think?
)…
have a look:
