Handspun ideas anyone?

Psst - Tomorrow the price of a Year In Colour Club membership will go up! If you're considering treating yourself to the gift that keeps on giving, now is the time!

I've had a lots of request from people wanting details about my tree skirt, it's my Flowers in the Snow afghan wrapped around the base of the tree! 

This is, more or less, my stash of handspun. I'm extremely in love with just about every skein. So much care and effort goes into every single skein that it becomes very difficult for me to pick a project worthy of my handspun yarns. Baby projects come to mind as a really good use. Typically the yardage I get out of one skein is enough for a baby sweater. Since babies aren't very hard on their clothes there is little risk that the finished knit will get abused or damaged. Baby projects are perfect heirloom knitting for special skeins. I've knit a few baby projects using my handspun already: here, here and here.

These five skeins jump out at me as being particularly baby appropriate. Any recommendations for the perfect baby sweater pattern that would highlight the beauty of handspun? I'm open to a pattern with stripes or colourwork, so I could combine a skein with some of my hand dyed yarn and then have some handspun left over for a hat or something. All ideas are welcome!

Jazz Hands Handspun

My afternoon of rest turned into an afternoon of work followed by an evening of spinning. It all worked out for me though as I ended the night with this lovely skein of very colourful and magical handspun! Unfortunately I think that this is the type of yarn that looks better in the skein than it will knit up. As I was plying it there were sections that were coming together beautifully, but then towards the end there is one really long patch of green. Not terrible, but it's not very balanced in terms of colour distribution. I'll just have to be careful when choosing the right project for this skein. Although, who knows when that will happen, I'm amassing quite the collection of handspun and have little finished projects to show for it! I need to come up with a plan. Until then I'll just keep spinning pretty skeins and hoarding them, that's just as fun!

This skein is 102g and 250yds.  

Tour De Fleece Wrap Up

Week 1 of the Tour de Fleece was a huge success in my books. I spun 3 skeins, over a thousand yards, and was feeling great! I had high hopes that I could maintain that pace throughout the 3 week Tour. But... Ah, life. Stuff happened. A baby was born, weekends were occupied with day trips to visit her, my parents were helping out and that meant that Chris and I moved over to my parents house to take care of the dogs and the cat. I was away from my wheel for too long and production slowed down. Actually, production pretty much stopped. 

Week 2 got off to an ok start. I spun this gorgeous Coloured Denim roving into this beautiful skein; 100g = 350yds. 

Then I started working on this braid of Jazz Hands, unfortunately I only made it half way through the singles before life got busy. 

Even though the Tour is now over, I still plan on finishing up that last skein as soon as I can. I think that it just might end up being me favourite skein yet. With lots of variety in colours, it could either be really cool, or really weird, either way, I can't wait to find out!

Tour de Fleece week 1

This has, without a doubt, been the most productive spinning week of my life! Of course, that means that it has not been the most productive knitting, working or housekeeping week of my life, but I'm ok with that trade off. The 3 skeins pictured above make me literally squeal with delight at the fact that I made them! I spun a little bit every day (and a lotta bit on some days) and spun about 300g and 1100yds! It's been fun and I plan to keep up the momentum this week. 

I am not the worlds fastest spinner, and I'm not 100% certain that I'm doing it right because when I do it I end up getting a bit of a leg workout, which I'm thrilled by because it makes me feel like I'm exercising, but I don't think that it's supposed to feel like that... I could not spin a skein a day even if I tried. At most I can sit at my wheel for an hour, maybe an hour and a half at a time before I need a break and in that amount of time I've usually just made a small dent in my singles. I figure that each skein probably takes me between 6-8 hours to complete. Between spinning the singles, then the plying, it's not for the faint of heart, but to me it's oh so worth it! Just look at those gorgeous skeins!

That last skein is something that I've never tried before, it's my first time spinning a single ply yarn. With the long graduating colour shifts I plan on knitting it up into a beautiful simple shawl like this.

Details about these handspun yarns (yardage etc.) can be found on my Ravelry Stash page here. 

WIP's

My Nanook sweater for the Summer Sweater KAL is coming along nicely. I ran into a bit of a snag when I ended up ripping back about 5" of the body because I thought I knew better and wanted to shorten the length of the yoke, but then after trying it on (5" into the body) I found that the underarms were going to be too tight so I ripped it back and added some length to the yoke. This was totally my fault, I shortened the yoke too much and then ended up lengthening it to exactly the dimensions the pattern called for. I'm really looking forward to blocking this sweater because I know that it's going to change the fabric considerably. Right now it's quite bouncy and squishy, which is awesome, but after wet blocking it's going to have the added element of drape, which is what I'm really looking for, especially for the garter stitch fronts. 

Last week I also cast on for a new sock in a special skein of Viola sock yarn that was gifted to me in a trade with Emily a few years ago. Since Emily has taken a break from dyeing her lovely yarns, this skein may be my only chance to knit with it! Actually, that's a lie, I have one more skein of Viola sock yarn, but still... it's not something I won't be able to buy again. I've had this skein wound into a cake and ready to go for over a year, I had it with me last summer while on vacation but couldn't decide on the right pattern for it. I think it's because it's just a bit finer than my Blue Label yarn, which is what I'm used to, so it never felt quite right. After several false starts throughout the year I finally landed on the 9 to 5 sock pattern by Nicole Hindes and it's looking great!

I've been doing lots of spinning this week to, in honour of the Tour de Fleece. I don't have a real game plan, I'm just trying to make sure that I spin a bit every day. I should have my third completed skein of handspun by the end of the day, 3 skeins in 1 week is a lot for me! 

Tour de Fleece

psst :: Etsy Update tonight at 7pm EST! Lotsa goodies!

Chris and I spent Saturday morning dyeing up a whole bunch of roving for tonight's Etsy Update (a few of my favourites from the day pictured above!) After having worked with the roving all morning I got myself pretty worked up about how much I love it! So I got out my spinning wheel and spent some quality time with it all weekend. Then I remembered that the Tour de France, and more importantly, the Tour de Fleece was coming up. After a quick google search I found out that it actually started on Saturday, the very day that a wave of spinning enthusiasm swept over me. I don't have any set goals for the Tour de Fleece, only to make a conscious effort to spin more than usual between now and July 22nd. I'll let you know how I do!  

Handspun Hat

And.... another new hat! This time I'll let the photo's do the talking (mostly). I had a gorgeous skein of handspun, so I knit a simple, slouchy hat to make the most of it. Pattern adapted from my Grammy's hat pattern, I just omitted the ribbing on the body. Love.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that bring the biggest smiles. :)

This week in spinning

Chris dyed this roving and when I first saw it, I was not thrilled. Orange and green? What was he thinking? I teased him about it so much that I started to feel bad. I decided to give it a chance and spin it for him. Who knows, maybe this ugly duckling would turn into a swan!

Well, now I've got mud on my face because this handspun is gorgeous! Just goes to show you really can't judge roving until it's spun. It's incredible how much it changes from beginning to end. Spinning is magic.

 Sorry Chris, I was wrong, you were right. This colour combo really does work. 

Etsy Update, plus some spinning!

There will be a Etsy Update today at 12pm (EST) aparently we had a thing for greens this time around. So many lovelies! You know I hate to part with them, I just hope they go to good homes!

We also dyed a whole bunch of roving for this update, which I'm pretty excited about. I LOVE hand dyed roving and I'm really happy to be back in the roving game. Below is my favorite braid of the day. 

It has been months since I pulled out my spinning wheel. I don't think that I've done any spinning since last June! Shame on me. I think that one of my problem's is the fact that I cherish my handspun so much (probably because I'm no expert and it typically takes me 2 or 3 nights of dedicated spinning time to spin a skein of yarn, it's a lot of work! I need to make sure I find just the perfect project for the special skein when it's all done.) Anyways... After knitting the adorable little Garter Yoke Baby sweater with some handspun I have made a new commitment to spin more often. For me, spinning is really quite a bit like meditation. It's repetitive, slow movements, I don't count, I don't really even think while I'm doing it. It makes me feel very relaxed and very zen. I could use a little more zen in my life, so I'm going to try and spin once a week from now on. Like most things, my spinning mojo tends to come in fits and spurts, so we'll see if I can keep it up... I'm going to try my best! 

On that note, last week I dug out these braids of roving that had been marinating in the stash for oh, maybe 3 years or so! I spun the singles and thought that they were just lovely, but the pale, silvery blue braid on the right was so subtle and beautiful that I decided to pair it with some merino/silk silvery grey roving that I had bought at the same time. 

I plied the soft silvers together and got a really pretty, soft grey skein. Then, I navaho-plied the pastel singles. That was cool. Watching the colours shift was really fascinating. I even made Chris watch me while I navaho-plied for a bit, man, he's a real trooper. 

I'm not sure what the skein on the left will become, but the skein on the right will most likely be something baby-oriented. Those soft pastel shades just have baby written all over them! And with only 50g, maybe I can get a wee hat out of it. 

Handspun Garter Yoke Baby Sweater

Every time I finish a wee little baby sweater I block it, sew on the buttons and I think to myself: "This is it, this is the cutest little thing I've ever seen. I can't possibly knit anything any sweeter." But eventually I cast on for another little sweater and I end up feeling exactly the same way about it. This little guy is no exception. I'm gaga over it. The handspun paired with Frost DK. The contrasting colour bind off on all the hems. Those perfect buttons that look like they have glimmering drops of water on them. Sigh... it's almost too much. 

Knitting this sweater made me realize how much I love handspun yarn. It never disappoints. So full of texture and intrigue. I think I might carve out a bit of time this weekend to do some more spinning. 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. I hope to spend mine spinning, knitting, cleaning out my garden and generally chillaxing.  

Pattern: Garter Yoke Baby Jacket by Jennifer Hoel.

Ravelry project page here. 

Baby sweaters are the new socks

I recently read this blog post by Jane Richmond about why she likes to knit socks. I couldn't agree more with everything she says. However, I'm fining that recently, knitting baby sweaters hits all the same targets for me as socks do. They can be small, portable, mindless, they don't really have to fit, they can be knit with just a single skein of yarn if you want. Best part is they are always adorable, no matter how simple the pattern. I'm currently working on a little number that has the added satisfaction of using up a very special skein of handspun yarn. I really do love spinning, but I treasure my handspun skeins so much that it can be really difficult to find a project worthy of one! I spun this skein way back in November 2009 and have been hoarding it ever since. I love the way it's working up so far. The pattern is the Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel.

Of course, having said all that, I still have a pair of simple stockinette socks on the needles just in case.  

Last weekend I spun.

Last weekend I took some roving from my stash and turned it into yarn. I felt great for minimizing my roving stash, but now my yarn stash has grown! I plan on gifting the green skein. I spun it with a friend in mind who happens to love green. Both roving's were dyed by Pigeonroof Studios.

Dark and Stormy sweater

The day after I finished my Saroyan scarf I decided to buckle down and finish my handspun yoke sweater. I had knit on it feverishly in the beginning, racing through the yoke, the body and most of one sleeve in just a couple of days. But then I started to doubt myself, I had a feeling that the sleeve decreases were happening too fast and that I was going to have to take it back and redo the bottom of the sleeve. It would have been an easy fix, and one of the benefits of knitting top down is that you can try your sweater on as you go. But that would have involved me getting up, taking off one sweater, putting on the sweater in progress, marching up the stairs to assess the situation in a full length mirror and making a decision. Instead I opted to put the sweater aside and reach for a another project. When the scarf was done I realized that I couldn't put it off any longer, I tried on the sweater, and it fit perfectly! I didn't need to alter the sleeve, I was right on track. So I buckled down and knit the second sleeve that night. Thank God I did, because this sweater rocks.

The sweater was knit from the top down, using EZ's percentage system. It's the exact same way I made my Dipped Infinity Sweater, only I reversed it since that one was knit bottom up. I don't have a preference really, it's nice to be able to try on the work as you go, which the top down method makes possible. The reason I chose to knit this sweater top down is because I wanted to be able to use up every last inch of handspun. Which I did! I did the collar in my Green Label Aran weight yarn in a one of a kind rather dark version of my Stormy colourway, and then I just started knitting with the handspun and didn't stop until I was all out. It worked perfectly!

Instead of the standard ribbing at the cuffs and hem I made the same alterations I used on my Dipped Infinity sweater and knit a folded under hem in a bright contrasting colour, a detail that I absolutely LOVE! It's so nice and neat, it lays perfectly flat and makes for a very modern fit, and looks so crisp and beautiful on the inside, all nicely sewn in. On the cuffs I worked 1 row of purl, then 1 row of knit and then bound off. It's enough to keep the hem from curling and adds just a little bit of texture.

I made this sweater a little bit looser and relaxed in fit then my Dipped Infinity sweater, which fits comfortably but is very form fitted. It feels very good to have my handspun for such a simple and effective sweater. I love it and know that I'll wear it for years and years. Its the perfect use for a cherished skein of handspun, however,  sweater like this would be just as gorgeous with the yoke knit in a beautiful skein of Kureyon.

red handspun

Lots of business to attend to today. First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!! Chris is a very low key kind of birthday day, we're planning on going out for supper and then maybe a movie, that's all the birthday hoopla he wants. He's so easy going, I love that.

Second order of business, the giveaway winner! The lucky recipient of the lovely blue skein featured in Saturday's post is "Island Sweet". Congrats! You've been e-mailed, please check your inbox and send me your address so I can get the yarn on its way to you. I had two of these special blue skeins, and I've listed the second in my Etsy shop (I've called it January Blue) so if anyone out there can't bear the idea of not having won the giveaway, there is one more skein up for grabs!

Next up, today is Tuesday, I should be doing a TFA Tuesday post, but I'm not. Sorry, no particular reason for this, I've just decided to take a break for today... I expect I will do another one next week, it won't be gone for good.

And lastly, I've got some spinning to share! I spent the last couple days of 2010 spinnging this gorgeous batt:

Into this gorgeous yarn:

The batt was the January 2009 shipment of the Grafton Fibers colourway club, however they have since changed their name to Dyakcraft, and I can't find any info about the colourways club (does it still exist?) or any fiber for sale at the moment... hopefully they are just taking a short break from making these beautiful batts, they really are special.

When spinning this 2-ply, I tried to keep the colour shifts gradual yet pronounced and not too muddy. It worked very well, the yarns runs smoothly through shades of purples, reds and back to purples with bits of blues and browns thrown in. Very pretty.

This last picture is funny. It shows a bit of the behind-the-scenes aspect of my yarn photography. I just shove everything down to one end of the dining room table and shoot my object on the clean end. In the background of the photo below you can sort of make out bags of roving, skeins of yarn, place mats, salt and pepper shakers... 

This yarn has already been worked up into the yoke of a sweater. But more on that another day. I hope you've all started 2011 with a new and exciting knitting project that you love!

A Handspun Shawl for Mom

I started knitting this project in secret this past September. I finally finished it on December 16th and I am absolutely thrilled with the result, and even more thrilled that I can finally share it! Voila, the Eliina shawl knit in my own handspun yarn!

You may recognize this handspun from a very long series of blog posts that began last February and finally wrapped up in March. I was working on this yarn, my very first 3-ply handspun for weeks! The roving is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe in Crabby McCrabbypants. It was definitely a labour of love, and absolutely worth all the effort now that I've got 2 beautiful FO's out of it. The first FO was a pair of awesome, simple socks that I knit for myself last March after finally completing all the spinning.

It was so hard to keep this project a secret! My mom is a very faithful follower of my blog, and she is always very up to date on my current knitting projects. I talk to her every day, and usually tell her everything, from what I ate for breakfast to where I took Stella for a walk and definitely what I'm working on, especially if it's a cool handspun shawl that I'm particularly excited about. I really wanted it to be a surprise for her. So, for months I fought the urge to spill the beans about this project and on Christmas day, when she opened her present and saw this handspun beauty, the look on her face made my months of secrecy totally worth it!

Buying gifts for my mom really isn't very difficult for me. I know what she likes and what she needs, I could buy her something nice and useful, and I know that she would love it and appreciate it, but this year I really wanted to give her something extra special. She does so much for all her kids, but this year especially, between the new house, the wedding and running our business, she has helped Chris and I more than I can explain. I don't know what we would have done without her.

What could be more special and appropriate than a handspun shawl. I knit a shawl for her for Christmas a couple of years ago, (a swallowtail shawl) and I gave her a silk stole that she wore all night at our wedding, and I thought that it was time for a new, simple but beautiful shawl that she could wear everyday.

Picking a shawl pattern that high-lights rather than distracts from handspun yarn is pretty easy. I wrote about my process when I designed my Prism Shawl, I tend to choose patterns that are simple and graphic, with just a touch of something, like maybe a couple of eyelet rows, to keep things interesting but still keep the focus on the yarn and the fabulous shifts in colour. I also can't resist a pretty border. The Eliina shawl has a gorgeous, light and airy border that I am crazy about! It features a crochet cast-off that I love, just like my other favorite pattern, the Haruni shawl (I've knit it twice, here and here. The first one was gifted to my cousin for Christmas this year.)

I love how the shift in pattern on the border makes the stripes of colour turn into undulating waves. Particularly that burgundy wave that runs right down the middle of the border, so pretty!

Of course I had to test out the shawl in a mini photo-shoot the other day. I wrapped it around my neck and was very happy with the size and the drape and the way that it casually falls so gracefully and beautifully over the shoulders. I love shawls, they are just so elegant.

After all that work at secrecy for my mom, my poor dad got a pair of cashmere socks for Christmas (as well as a hat made by Chris!) but the socks weren't a secret. He knows that he's always going to get socks and he loves them, the only surprise this year was that I was actually able to get them finished and wrapped up in time to give them to him on Christmas day! He likes his socks very much, They are Anne Hanson's Cinder Block sock pattern knit in TFA Purple Label Cashmere sock yarn in the Olive colourway.

Pretty Handspun shawl Ravelry project page.