Finish it Up Friday- Sheep to Sweater, Yarn

Remember back almost a year ago, last June to be precise, Uncle Doc presented me with a Merino sheep's fleece to do SOME-thing with. Well, I had it cleaned and processed in Phillipsburg, Kansas at the Shepherds Mill. They did a great job. They washed it twice and carded it into three bags full of roving just READY to be spun. It makes me so happy there were three bags full because I can chyme Baa baa black white sheep have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!!! Ooooh that makes me so giddy.

Well it arrived back just before my first year of full fledged teaching began. I knew if I even opened those bags I would not have been able to resist the urge to spin them. 

Sooooo I waited. And waited. If it wasn't one thing it was another. So on this my first week of summer vacation I went absolutely crazy. Here you can see the three bags next to the beautiful spinning wheel I have borrowed from my friend Mary. Her father made it!

 It was so thoughtfully designed! There are four bobbins so I can fill two with a single ply spin, and then use the two empty bobbins to ply the yarn. There is a Lazy Kate for holding bobbins for plying and storage built right onto the wheel! Brilliant.

Here is my first hank of yarn on the Knitty Noddy. The knitty noddy is a tool for making the big loops of yarn that are needed for setting and dying yarn. The yarn is often then twisted into hanks to showcase the yarn and balled on a ball winder after purchase or selection. 

Well I've been spinning like crazy. I've taken the wheel to two knitting group sessions and pretty much parked myself in front of the TV when I'm not doing anything else. My goal was to get about 1,000 yards to make a sweater. I've got 1,095 yards. 

I'm going to call it a worsted/DK weight but like many early attempts at hand spun yarn it varies a bit. There were 1.4 pounds of roving for spinning in this bag and I used all of it to get this yardage. (I still have two more bags to play with! Hmmmmmm.)

This project has more or less evolved into a sheep to sweater project. I will leave the yarn its natural color so that the texture of the hand spinning really shows and so that it emphasizes the whole process of taking something in its natural state and transforming it.

Here is the yarn hanging in my bathroom. Once it has been spun you want to "set" it. Before being set the yarn might have the tendency to un-spin. Much like hair in a braid, when it has been gotten wet the hair will retain the shape of the braid better. 

I have water bottle weights hanging from the yarn to kind of pull it taught and get a bit of the springiness out of it as it dries. I'm hoping this might help with the thickness consistency if I should choose to knit a sweater with work. 

I was worried too much weight might pull the whole towel rack down so I have one bottle on the floor with the weight supported and the other one is hanging down with its weight.
What a finish!!! Wahoooo!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday!

The Fleeciest Surprise!

This is Uncle Doc. 

Uncle Doc is a major supporter of my grand adventure into the spinning realm. While at Deer Camp in Texas he has come to know a sheep rancher. He appealed to said sheep rancher to obtain a sheep fleece for me to spin! Here he is showing me the surprise he had.

Here is is in all it's fresh off the sheep glory! Doc says he thinks it was one who dodged the first shearing which explained the pungent fragrance. Which explained why it stayed in a bag in a box until it was shipped up to The Shepherds Mill in Philipsburg, Kansas. 

Duffers.

Isn't that a funny name? That's what these are called. Or at least what the pattern calls them! (Find the pattern here on Ravelry.) I developed duffer envy when my friend M brought a pair to Stitch in One (our fiber group.) They're so dense and cozy. Because they're felted, they don't really have any funky spots for bulk or discomfort either. So as soon as we procured the pattern, we got to work. (M has the fever too!)

I made my first pair. I seamed them up, and suspiciously they fit perfectly before being felted! Ugh! 

Just to see how things went, I felted them anyway. They got to be so cute and tiny! 

But they sure weren't going to fit on my feet.

So I tried again. I made the largest size the pattern gives "numbers" for. I was so anxious to have them on my feet that I completely forgot to take a picture before felting them!  

Here they are with the mini's. 

And on my cutting mat for some size gauging. One square= 1 sq inch.
The tiny ones went to my dear friend Charlotte W. I thought that they couldn't get cuter but she sure is icing on the cake!


Mine are on my feet. Under a quilt. With funky white socks. They're not being photographed. But they're fabulous. The best thing about them for me, is that I have particularly sweaty feet. Sometimes if I wear slippers or socks my feet can get COLDER because the slippers or socks hold onto or trap the moisture which then conducts the heat away from my feet. Wool will keep a body warm EVEN WHEN WET!!! That's why wool mittens are the bee's knees.

Kool Mittens and MossCap

Remember this yarn?My friend (Valerie's friend) Laura commissioned me to make her some mittens. Here they are fairly big and bulky.I washed and dried the wool mittens and they shrunk down, and tightened up to fit a bit better. They're not quite felted...but almost.I made her this hat to match. As I was finishing the mittens the yarn spoke to me and told me that they couldn't go on to fulfill their lives without a hat to make them a set. The hat was improvised. Lets just say I learned a lot. My mom tried to swipe Laura's hat. I guess that means there MIGHT be one in order for her too. Good thing I like knitting so much.I also finished this hat a while back. It's the Foliage hat. I love the pattern. I couldn't think of a purple dragon so I named this hat Barney...but I don't think Barney has scales...any suggestions?

Kool Blue Waters

Val's good friend Laura has commissioned a pair of mittens. Valerie told her she couldn't wear the ones she got from the dollar tree so now Laura is pullin out the big guns and goin for the gold. I had her log on to my Ravelry account and pick a pair she liked. She said, "Can you do those? Are they too hard?" Psssh. I can do anything. We'll see if that's my tune when I'm done. I got the book from the library, ordered the wool yarn (Lanaloft worsted.) Laura is pretty go with the flow so I've taken this opportunity to hand dye the yarn for the pattern. I'm using Kool Aid.
I made a big loop so that the yarn wouldn't be variegated in such short intervals. I wanted it to be fairly gradual. Soaked the yarn in water. Looks like spaghetti.

Dissolved the kool aid. (Round one: 1/3 package blue 1 tip of spoon purple Round two: 2/3 package blue 2 tips of spoon purple Round 3: Whole package blue 3 tips of spoon purple)

I wanted 3 shades of the same blue each level darker than the next. Here you can see round one in the microwave.

I believe this is round two. Chopsticks were perfect for propping the round one yarn out of the dye. Not metal so I could still do the simple microwave method.

After round three I did all the yarn for two more min in the microwave all submerged in the darkest dye. (I realised there was plenty of room to take the whole thing darker.) You can see how much of the color it actually absorbed.

Here's the whole thing hanging out in the sink post rinse. Twisted into a loose hank and drying the rest of the way on the back of my door.

Wound into a ball. Doesn't do it justice...looks rather pink...couldn't wait to start knitting it.

This yarn has been dubbed Kool Blue Waters.

My Resource can be found here http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html and I strongly recommend following their directions and not my photo story board.

Fire and Ice Slippers

Dear Little Spouse on the Prairie,

For you. Colors of fire and ice to keep your toes from freezing! Made of wool and rather thick. No buttons per specifications.
AND just for you in appreciation for all those buttons you've been sending, a coordinating knit hat. This one is the bulky yarn version of my Vandal Fall hat. The leaf pattern makes me think of scales while it's being knit, so I'm calling it Saphira after the beautiful blue dragon in Eragon.

The scarf I am making in the same pattern to go with my Vandal Fall Hat will probably be called Thorn after the villainous dragon in this book. Hmmm this naming thing is growing on me! :) The slippers will be on their way this afternoon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love wool yarn,

from a sheep in a barn.

A cupcake, I heart,

especially when it's art!

I send out a toast,

to all the ones I love most.

Thank you for reading!

More post's will be succeding.

I just shrugged.

Well, technically, I knit a shrug, but technicality can be sacrificed when coming up with a blog title right?

Sooo anyway, my birthday/Christmas/birthday project for Val was inspired by two things. The first was that I wanted to do some sort of jewel toned top for myself, my sister and my mother. My deep purple sweater is done, Valerie's emerald-ish aquamarine-ish shrug is now done and my mothers Fuchsia cowell wrap is on the way! The inspiration for Valerie's colors came from her shoes. I remembered that she had a pair of lime green shoes and a teal/aqua color. While the color match didn't quite get perfect, I think when worn together they work quite well!

The Shoes!

The shrug from the front! (Duh, I know but whats a picture without a caption?)

I found the pattern in a fabulous book called Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. I like her sweaters because they arent frumpy feeling and super baggy, though if you choose to do any of her patterns be sure to double check her website for pattern ammendments. I made this shrug out of Lanaloft Worsted Weight 100% Wool yarn. The aqua color is called Turquoise Magic (LL92W) and the green is called Scottish Hillside (LL72W). This yarn was a dream to work with! Ask anyone who was around me when I was knitting with it. I kept saying "I love this yarn!" If you're interested in ordering yarn you could call Lynda (click here for contact info) regarding ordering etc. I used size 9 circular needles on the whole thing. (Didn't bother with the smaller size for the ribbing. The shoulders fit perfectly when it was completed, but the arms were a bit big. That wasnt a problem since I saved sewing them up for last and took them in quite a bit!

The back view. Yay!

Hats On?

You are now viewing the finally finnished, fully assembling, goofy looking, fair isle hat with earflaps and dangly braids that I love and am very proud of!
In this picture you can even see the fleece I tacked on inside the hat for added comfort, and to keep the wool that makes up the hat clean!

Almost makes me want to be in the snow again so I can wear it! Just kidding...after snow in June I dont need to see snow 'til February!

Beguiled by Guilds

On Saturday I went with Tanya, Tyler, and Kim to the Civil War Reenactment AKA The Civil War Revisited. I especially enjoy going to this event every year that I can, I often dress up, but this weekend was a busy one, and since many of my clothes are in the garage, I opted to save dressing up for Halloween this year. This year the guilds' exhibits were especially good. I spent the most time checking out treadle and hand crank sewing machines, chair caning and spinning! (No, I didn't forget to purchase a bag of kettle corn before we left. The important stuff right?)I was so interested in what I was seeing that I forgot to take pictures!

Here are two that I did get:

Tanya, Tyler, and Me!

Kim snuck up front to get a better view of the battle...she's wearing a green shirt.