First off, in the category of People You Should Know About, I just want to make a fuss about the recent publication of Blue Diamonds by Sigrun Jones, who has also designed the Prairie Gardens Cardigan. Sigrun, (who is at work on the Master Knitter program and designs great sweaters), is both an extremely knowledgeable knitter and an excellent mentor. I've been learning a lot from her, and you can learn a lot from her too as Blue Diamonds was published in Cast On Magazine, which, being the member magazine of The Knitting Guild Association, has in-depth instructional notes published alongside patterns. Go take a look!
I've made some progress on my nephew's socks; just need to weave-in ends. I haven't been getting around to that for the last while, but I am sure I can manage it before July! In the meantime, here's a photo, with one inside out (weaving-in in progress).
Other than that, I have been spinning a bit more. A friend gave me a 'welcome to the rabbit-hole' after my last post, and she's not wrong; this is definitely addictive! It's also a great stress-break from knitting work, now that a good deal of my knitting is now defined as, albeit agreeable, work.
Here is my third attempt at making yarn, resulting in approximately 30g of approximately fingering weight yarn, measuring approximately 60 yds (I measured my arm before skeining it around my arm... only somewhat near accurate I'm sure). While I'm still spinning thick-and-thin yarn, it's rather subtly so now, and I am quite pleased.
Attempts one, two, and three in that order:
Definitely some progress being made! Since I'm out of pink wool now, I've moved on to the wool that my oldest picked out for me:
It comes out rather more subtle when spun. There's less of this type, so I'm not sure yet if I will ply it, since I'd like to make a little (in both senses) something for each daughter from the reasonably successful batches of yarn. Will happily take suggestions for project ideas! It will be awhile before I can get to it, but it is well-worth looking for ideas in the meantime.
thank you for the compliments and the plug. I'm curious about spinning, but since the stash is too big, and I'm loving knitting it will remain just that--curiosity--I will not take up a new hobby (definitely not a wheel, maybe just a little spindle one day--I saw Yarnjunky spindling and it was neat how easy she made it look.
ReplyDeletethere is quite a difference in the 3 pink samples all are nice. I'd be curious if you could go back and replicate the first one, or if you are doomed to get more even yarn every time you try☺