Since hurting my back two weeks ago, I haven't really felt up to sitting in front of my spinning wheel. I did manage to finish a quick handspun project though...
sweet 16 scarf
handspun superwash merino, spun thick and thin -- 4 oz
roving dyed by me for my shop, zero.etsy.com
started: october 2007
finished: 13 november 2007
US 15 (10mm) 24" Addi
16 st CO, knit in garter stitch til the yarn ran out
I absolutely fell in love with the lumpy bumpy of urchin in the the current knitty, but hats + me != yes and I didn't have anything like the yarn on hand... so that crisis was averted. Then I saw yarnstorm's churning out of colinette point five garter stitch scarves and figured I could make one, both yarn and scarf, pretty painlessly.
I had a 4 oz braid of roving from my last dye session that would.just.not.photograph.true, and I didn't feel okay selling something that looked that coloroff in my etsy store. So I kept it, though I really am not a fan of green, teal, turquoise... and spun it up into a truly thin (lace) to thick (trouble on my US 15's) yarn very very quickly-- yall, it was SO fun to spin! It took me an afternoon of my son's play outside to pinch pull push this slubby yarn into submission; I had no idea what Colinette Point Five looks like (am i missing out?) which was probably a good thing, would have run on my fun.
I just love the truly odd nature of the yarn-- I've knit with some "thick/thin" commercial yarn (one of the handpaintedyarn.com rougher ones), but it wasn't nearly as wildly thick and thin as mine is. I really liked the knitting with this handspun though, because you can really see the construction of knitting stitches knit up in this yarn.
The wildly varying gauge of the yarn means that the edge is imperfect looking...
...but doesn't bother me, which is surprising! As you can see above, it's not really that odd looking worn, but certainly not perfect :)
The stretches of thin and thick widths worked up like this almost reminds me of scribble lace, and knitting this up kept me thinking about spinning up an intentional "scribble lace" yarn with a predetermined yard stretch of thin yarn, followed by a predetermined length of thick yarn. All in one colorway (either a solid or a variegated) would be really cool without being way over the top... and mixing up two different fibers/colors would be way out there in one of those good ways :)
best pic of colorway
I was also shocked at how much scarf I was able to get out of the yarn-- I've been eyeing the painfully cool teenagers with scarves to their knees with lust in my heart, and I had no idea I could achieve that length with only 4 oz of roving. It's definitely a combination of big needles and the nature of the yarn, but even as "open" as the scarf is, it's super warm wrapped around (and around and around!) me. I still don't know the proper ways to wear a scarf (growing up in the desert will do that to you), but still it's fun.
Segueing from fun to fun (yall know how much I love my segues)... the etsyFAST street team is holding a scavenger hunt contest! (No, not for used *anythings,* thanks!) Search for our team flyer thru etsyFAST shop listings and win fabulous knitting and fiber prizes! More details here-- the contest runs only thru Nov 15th, so you have a good chance to win if you have some time to kill :)
sweet 16 scarf
handspun superwash merino, spun thick and thin -- 4 oz
roving dyed by me for my shop, zero.etsy.com
started: october 2007
finished: 13 november 2007
US 15 (10mm) 24" Addi
16 st CO, knit in garter stitch til the yarn ran out
I absolutely fell in love with the lumpy bumpy of urchin in the the current knitty, but hats + me != yes and I didn't have anything like the yarn on hand... so that crisis was averted. Then I saw yarnstorm's churning out of colinette point five garter stitch scarves and figured I could make one, both yarn and scarf, pretty painlessly.
I had a 4 oz braid of roving from my last dye session that would.just.not.photograph.true, and I didn't feel okay selling something that looked that coloroff in my etsy store. So I kept it, though I really am not a fan of green, teal, turquoise... and spun it up into a truly thin (lace) to thick (trouble on my US 15's) yarn very very quickly-- yall, it was SO fun to spin! It took me an afternoon of my son's play outside to pinch pull push this slubby yarn into submission; I had no idea what Colinette Point Five looks like (am i missing out?) which was probably a good thing, would have run on my fun.
I just love the truly odd nature of the yarn-- I've knit with some "thick/thin" commercial yarn (one of the handpaintedyarn.com rougher ones), but it wasn't nearly as wildly thick and thin as mine is. I really liked the knitting with this handspun though, because you can really see the construction of knitting stitches knit up in this yarn.
The wildly varying gauge of the yarn means that the edge is imperfect looking...
...but doesn't bother me, which is surprising! As you can see above, it's not really that odd looking worn, but certainly not perfect :)
The stretches of thin and thick widths worked up like this almost reminds me of scribble lace, and knitting this up kept me thinking about spinning up an intentional "scribble lace" yarn with a predetermined yard stretch of thin yarn, followed by a predetermined length of thick yarn. All in one colorway (either a solid or a variegated) would be really cool without being way over the top... and mixing up two different fibers/colors would be way out there in one of those good ways :)
best pic of colorway
I was also shocked at how much scarf I was able to get out of the yarn-- I've been eyeing the painfully cool teenagers with scarves to their knees with lust in my heart, and I had no idea I could achieve that length with only 4 oz of roving. It's definitely a combination of big needles and the nature of the yarn, but even as "open" as the scarf is, it's super warm wrapped around (and around and around!) me. I still don't know the proper ways to wear a scarf (growing up in the desert will do that to you), but still it's fun.
Segueing from fun to fun (yall know how much I love my segues)... the etsyFAST street team is holding a scavenger hunt contest! (No, not for used *anythings,* thanks!) Search for our team flyer thru etsyFAST shop listings and win fabulous knitting and fiber prizes! More details here-- the contest runs only thru Nov 15th, so you have a good chance to win if you have some time to kill :)
