Much Excitement!

 My very talented friend Kate took some more pictures for me and I love how beautiful she makes my yarn look.  Her shop is The Wandering Wolf, and she's a very talented spinner and dyer as well as photographer!
We had a volunteer model last week too, anything looks beautiful on this dear friend!

 She got some very pretty pictures of one of my TDF yarns, which I should be listing in the shop today.

 And I finished spinning the Polwarth that I dyed with cochineal.  I think it's just the neatest thing ever to dye something with wee bugs, and I love this yarn.  It's springy and bouncy and terribly soft.  I'm somewhat disinclined to sell it, but if I want to continue playing with fiber, I must have funding!

My most exciting news is that my yarn will be debuting in a OOAK night next Monday by a fiber artist who uses handspun yarn to make photo props for babies.  Adorable stuff!  If you'd like to see, it will be hosted on her facebook page. After the Bump next Monday the 22nd at 8 pm MST.  She will be using my green and purple handspun, and there is still a skein of it available in the shop.

My first "event" as a vendor, and some more TDF yarns

Thanks to the generosity of my friend http://www.etsy.com/shop/thewanderingwolf?ref=ss_profile Kate from Wandering Wolf (blogger and it's link issues are driving me mad,) I was able to participate in an event called Albany Crazy Daze, or Days..not sure the actual title. My participation forced me to do some things I'd not done until then, such as make some ball bands and labels for my handknits, and make some business cards. I won't say they ended up being terribly beautiful, but they were accurate and informative.

The event fortunately was fairly inexpensive to enter, because it turned out to be less than ideal for vendors of handmade yarn and knits. Most of the people who came through were not the kind of people who are willing to pay extra for getting unique items made by local artisans, and there was a Scentsy booth down the way, which, in my opinion, doesn't belong in an artisans market. I did sell one item, which paid for my part of the booth, and I learned some things about where I want to be in the future. I also had a fun day hanging out with my friends.

And here are some of the yarns I spun from the wooly cupcakes I got from the Wool Peddlerhttp://www.etsy.com/shop/stefknits?ref=ss_profile. I love the results I get, even from the groups I think I will dislike.

All these have been listed in the shop along with a couple handknits from my handspun yarn.http://www.etsy.com/shop/brandyann

Tour de Fleece 2011: Day 1 and 2

I'm desperately trying to keep up with posting pictures of what I'm spinning, spinning itself, and posting new things in my etsy shop. I'm pretty sure if I let it pile up, it will be too overwhelming to tackle! I started off Saturday morning of TdF with a treat, a llama and angora luxury batt from Plum Crazy Ranch (http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlumCrazyRanchFiber?ref=ss_profile) that I bought at Black Sheep Gathering last weekend. ( I'm not sure what the deal is with blogger lately, but between being unable to load photos about 75% of the time lately, and now not allowing me to highlight and hyperlink properly, I'm tempted to switch blog hosts.)

Anyway, back to the point, I really enjoyed this stuff, there was only one ounce of it, and very textured, which is why I started with it. I tend to get stuck in the rut that many spinners seem to, spinning thinner and thinner yarns just because we can. I firmly believe that we as handspinners should be doing what we do best, which is create something a machine cannot. I understand that there is a sense of accomplishment in having the skill to spin a very fine yarn, I do it sometimes myself, and I understand that sometimes it is appropriate to what we are spinning for, perhaps a lace shawl, or socks, which require finer gauge yarns. I just spun a laceweight single ply for a shawl, and got great color sequences, so I'm not knocking the spinning of fine yarns in general, just saying that in my own spinning life, I'm at the point where I'm trying to develop range. I want to be able to spin a variety of styles and weights of yarn, and since I tend to be a little obsessive when I get focused on something, this batt was intended to break me out of my thinner and thinner yarn rut, and it did, with a bang. This yarn is bumpy and colorful and probably the softest stuff I have even spun. And fluffy, poufy, just all around WOW! My pictures don't do it justice, but then, when do pictures ever adequately capture yarn, it must be touched as well as seen to be fully experience, but since I can't hand it to you through the computer monitor, you'll just have to trust me.

Next I spun some angora and silk, and I haven't got the picture for that right here, but I bring it up because although it was equally soft, though much smoother while I spun it, when I soaked it and hung to dry to set the twist it got hard and stiff. Does anyone know what happened? I'm going to look into it.

On day 2 I opened up my 1 lb bag of wooly cupcakes and sorted them into colors that sort of went together, and then I started with this batch. I am the kind of person who always saves the best for last, so this is what looked like my least favorite colors.

Oddly enough, they turned out a beautiful yarn. This is why I am on my second one lb bag of these things. They have produced some of my loveliest handspun ever, though I can't take the credit. If you want some for yourself, go on over to Wool Peddler on etsy, she'll set you up.

I tried a new thing with this yarn that was suggested by the Plum Crazy Ranch lady (owner?) at Black Sheep Gathering, I was bemoaning the high cost of extra bobbins for the Hansen mini Spinners (49$! do you believe it?), and looking at a pretty electric spinner she had there in the booth, and she said she never plies from the bobbins anyway, she likes to ply with the fiber in the same direction as it was spun in, so she winds each ply off the bobbin into a ball and plys from the outside of the ball. She said it creates a more balanced and softer/smoother yarn. I did that with this yarn, and it is very lovely, though since I didn't do any of it my usual way, I don't have something to compare to. This yarn is extremely sproingy and soft, as are all the cupcakes I have spun up so far. They are always a mix of BFL, fine merino, and sometimes tencel. I have one more skein from Day 2, but the pictures aren't great yet, so I'll save it for the next post.

Happy Spinning everyone, I'm having a blast participating in my first Tour de Fleece. I keep looking at all the pretty fiber, clicking through to the fiber shop, and then talking myself out of more fiber, I'm pretty sure I have 3-4 lbs of fiber to go before I actually need more!

Grace Lace Beret

I have been a negligent blogger for a long time now, and I wish I had a great explanation or a more graceful way of jumping back in. Wait, I have the Grace Lace Beret. I would link to the Ravelry page, but Blogger won't allow me to hyperlink, I can get the pop up box, but I can't highlight the text. If anyone knows how to fix that, I'd love to know~

Having an etsy shop has made me more interested in what a knitter can make for the summer months, and I thought a lacy hat out of a non-wool yarn would be just the thing. This hat is made out of Berocco Remix, which I love despite the somewhat high non-natural fiber content. 30%Nylon/27%Cotton/24%Acrylic/10%Silk/9%Linen and all recycled fiber, if you haven't tried it yet, you should.

I had to adjust the number of repeats to fit the gauge of the yarn and my head. I started with 48 stitches, which doubles to 96 on row 2. I really enjoyed this cast-on method, but I don't know what it is called. You start with a crochet chain provisional cast on, then K1 yo for the next row, then there are two rounds of double knitting I think, where you are slipping all the knits, then all the purls on the next row, then you start with regular K1P1 ribbing. Anyway, if someone knows what it is called I'd love to have the name for it.

I do love this hat, and I made two, so I may put one in the shop, so someone else with a big head (literally not figuratively) can have a properly slouchy hat.

A bit of catch-up

I have been knitting more than blogging lately, but I decided to try and catch up a bit. I started knitting socks again. I didn't for a long time because I have such weirdly shaped feet after all my surgeries that most women's sock patterns seemed unlikely to fit. Up to this point I had only knitted top-down socks. I have a Lucy Neatby book, Cool Socks Warm Feet, which helped me with directions for the short-row garter heel and I finally sat down with the youtube video, and learned Judy's Magic Cast-on, so now I think I am a convert to toe-up socks just so I have an excuse to keep using it. I had to increase right before the heel and also do the heel on more than half the stitches to accomodate my high instep on the right foot, but not the left. I did a leg pattern that is sort of a fisherman's rib adaptation. I am quite happy with these socks and went on to knit another pair soon thereafter. I took a class at our LYS about stranded knitting and made this Opus Spicatum by Kate Gagnon Osborne using Mirasol Miski, an incredibly soft yarn that is 100% llama. It is not very slouchy on my large head, but it went to my sister-in-law Carolyn for Christmas, and it looks great on her.

I learned to knit with both hands finally, and though it was awkward in the beginning, it was loads of fun once I got going and I made a second Opus that I'll talk about later.

I also made a Lotus Hat that Alexa loves out of Eco Alpaca, and she wears it often, so it has been one of my most rewarding knits this fall. I finally made something out of some Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande that used to be a hat that was too large for my head. I knit it from the top down in a broken rib pattern and liked the way it looked on the wrong side best. This one went to my nephew Christopher for Christmas.

And finally, one of the prettiest pictures of my yarn ever, taken by my friend Kate.

This is some nice stuff I got at Black Sheep from a lady whose business is New Hue Handspuns. It is an 80-20 mix of merino and angora. I got 344 yards of laceweight out of it, and I love it so much I priced it a little high in my etsy shop.

FO: Idlewood

I finished this pullover about a week and a half ago, but couldn't get someone to take photos until today. (Thank you Susan) The pattern is called Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. It is knit from the top down raglan style. There are some waist decreases and hip increases to make it fit nicely. I had only to adjust the length to the hip increases (decreased by one inch) to make it fit perfectly. I think this is the first sweater I have made that I am entirely pleased with.

The yarn is Noro Vintage, which I think is being discontinued. If so, it's a pity, since it softened and bloomed upon washing into a gorgeous, soft, very wearable yarn. The angora sheds a bit, but gives it a lovely halo.

You can even wear the cowl as a hood when Oregon weather opens up with buckets of water on your head and you dressed for the weather an hour ago when it was sunny.

Great project, I have worn it three times already in about 1.5 weeks! Make one for yourself!

I have been knitting and spinning both

Although the number of blog entries would seem to contradict that premise. I bought some smaller amounts of more costly fiber at BSG this year. This is one of those, a roving from Dicentra Designs. Made of a beautifully dyed blend of 60%Merino 20%Cashmere and 20% Angora, it is very soft to the touch, and was a bit challenging to spin. I had the same issue with this one that I had with the merino and yak blend I tried to spin a while back. They tended to have long easy to spin bits, the merino, and then bits of short fuzzy fibers, the angora I assume. I am not sure which section the cashemere was..I'll have to look up staple length. This blend seemed to be a bit less problematic, possibly due to better blending of fibers, or maybe this is just an easier composition. I was able to spin it into a reasonable yarn, a bit more thick and thin than I intended, but still fairly nice. I got about 188 yds of 12-24 wpi yarn from 2 oz. I think it's effectively laceweight.

This blue one is from a lovely multi-hued roving I bought at OFFF in 2009. I don't know what it is for sure, but am pretty sure it is a good quality wool, since it is soft and smells wooly. I bought it from a lady who was selling her mother's stash after her death, and this wasn't labeled. I tried to make a very lightly spun single ply yarn, and am quite pleased with this result. It's about 6-10 wpi, and divided into two skeins. 175 yds:4 5/8oz and 128 yds:2 7/8oz or a total of 303 yards and 7.5 oz. According to the yarn approximation chart in my Spin to Knit book, that is in the bulky category and we can expect it to knit at 3-4 st/in on a size 10-11 needle.

Sorry for all the gory details for those of you who don't much care, but I am preparing to put some things in my etsy shop, and want to have accurate details recorded somewhere I can find later!

These are a pair of simple fingerless gloves made from a single skein of Elizabeth Lavold Silky Flamme. Michelle started carrying it in the shop a while ago, and it was so pretty and shiny I kept stopping to look, and when I picked up a skein of my current favorite color, and it was called Brandywine (or something like,) it had to come home with me. It is kind of thick and thin and there are only 82yds in a skein. I wanted to use all of it, so these were a good choice.

I also knitted a Kookhaas hat, but I have lost it somewhere, so until I locate it, there won't be photos.