Hand over the Wool!

What I did during my Fall Vacation

In the shop the 20% off Winter Olympic sale is still going through Feb 28.  I will also try to update the shop with a few more new items I dyed this past weekend, time permitting. Any orders placed by 12 noon tomorrow (Feb 25) will be shipped tomorrow, otherwise all later orders will be shipped on Monday March 1st. I'm attending a retreat and will be away Thurs - Sunday.

And now for our regularly scheduled program.....

It occurred to me that I hadn't shared a vast amount of my FO's from Fall 2009 with you. It wasn't that I wasn't proud of them, more that I was so busy using them that they became part of my daily lifestyle. I give you a pile of dishcloths!

I went a little crazy for cotton for a month or two, I also have knitted the matching Mitered Hand Towels (from the Mason Dixon book) and still have to weave in the ends. Does it bug anyone else that cotton doesn't weave like wool? I can finish a wool piece and you'd be hard pressed to find the ends, but in cotton I just can't get that neat finished look I like. I'm on the verge of just making sure the knot is tight and snipping off the yarn tail just so I can use the hand towels, which I might just do tonight.

My scarf and hat set for Garrett was a big focus from last fall, the scarf is done and being used but I had to frog the hat and start it over. At least in this picture you can see the scarf. The hat is some ribbing and a pile of yarn now. The yarn is from Shetland fleeces I washed, picked and carded, then spun into a nice 3-ply yarn shown in this post.

The scarf pattern is A's Manly Scarf which I found for free on Ravelry. It's an easy knit giving a nice textured fabric.

Then there was Mom's Christmas present, the Button Up Neckwarmer from Spin-Off. The yarn is my own handspun from bamboo, Merino and silk.

 

I liked the pattern so much I made another for a friend in the larger size using my own handdyed handspun in 100% Merino.

Aside from the huge work sweater I had blogged about here, I think that's everything fibery from this fall.

Olympic Spirit SALE!!!!!!!!

I'm totally into the Olympics this year, recording and cheering and the whole thing. For the Ravelympics I finally decided to knit EZ's Epaulet Jacket from my Mystery Fleece gray yarn. I still have to finish spinning the yarn, there's about a pound and a half of clean fleece to card still. I have started the gauge swatching, and while knitting the second swatch today during the Men's Biathalon I had a grand idea. SALE TIME!!!

You see, I spent Friday night in a photo shoot with a ton of my handdyed fibers and yarns plus some beautiful handspun yarns. Saturday I posted most of it to my Etsy shop. So there's fresh wool for the taking at a total steal of 20% off the purchase price of your order when paid through Paypal. Just complete your order and pay via Paypal and I will refund the 20% back to your account before shipping. Hurry, Sale ends Feb 28.

Hmm, I Changed My Mind, Again...

Darn. I was almost convinced I wanted to get a Louet S75. And then reason set in. Seriously, Reason is a total downer when I try to "impulse-buy".

In reality, my spinning hasn't required a second wheel, but after having ready access to a wheel just for plying this past weekend I really can justify the existence of said second wheel in the Wool Princess household. Much of my spinning has been for semi-woolen bulky yarn, to be used in knitting more work sweaters for DH. Usually I spin a ton of singles then ply, and while this system typically insures I finish the project, it limits my spinning creativity. We can't have that, right? Of course there is still the issue of finances.

Anyhoo, here's the first of DH's work sweaters, entirely of medium colored Coopworth handspun. I used EZ's Hurry up Last Minute Sweater pattern. The knitted gauge was about 2 stitches per inch. For scale, this sweater is laying on my laundry room floor, which has 12 inch tiles. Yep, DH is a big guy.

 

Below is my gauge swatch for sweater #2. The red yarn is Mauch Chunky in Bing Cherry (love this color) and the gray is handspun Columbia. As I prefer to knit in the round, I need to swatch in the round. I am also impatient, and want to get results fast, so instead of knitting a hat, I knit a flat swatch with about an inch of garter stitch for all borders. Instead of purling back on the wrong side I carry the yarn behind the right side and leave some slack. This picture is of the wrong side, showing the loops.

 

I've been a good girl here, washing, rinsing and drying the swatch just as I would the finished sweater. THEN I took multiple gauge measurements, before settling on the fabric knitted with US8 and getting 15 st to 4 inches. Then I cast on. See?

Adoption?

Maybe there's a little sister on the horizon for Minerva? I attended my spinning guild's annual retreat this weekend and now I'm thinking I need, repeat, need a second wheel. Two wheels equals twice the spun yarn, right!