Friday 3 July 2009

Bright Blue Eyes

This weeks winner is Hope! Congratulations Hope, you suggested that I name that colourway Bright Blue Eyes, and now you've got two skeins of it coming your way. Please just send me an e-mail with your address, and I'll pop it right in the mail (my e-mail address is on the blog under my profile.)

Kelsey suggested that I name that colourway Grackle, after the bird, and thankfully sent me a link to this photo to illustrate why:


Isn't it stunning!? Grackle is kind of a funny word, but the colour of that birds feathers is unbelievable. So gorgeous, I could go on for days about how much I love that colour. Thanks Kelsey!

I have been knitting this week, I finished one sock for the pattern I'm working on. I really like it and will work out the kinks while I knit the second sock, and will hopefully have a finished pattern to share with you by next week! I've also been working on the lace ribbon scarf, I don't know why I can't just sit down and finish that thing! I ordered lace blocking wires last week, they should get here early next week, at which point I'll be really excited to use them and hopefully that'll be all the incentive I need to get this scarf finished so I can block it.

I've also been spinning. My knitting blog is starting to look like a spinning blog! It's just that it's still so new to me and every time I spin roving into yarn I learn so much that I want to start all over again to see if I can build upon what I learnt the last time. It probably would have been much easier to find someone to teach me how to spin, but this self-taught thing is really working out for me. Every time I figure something out for myself I feel so proud and motivated.

The past couple of days I worked on this beautiful BFL roving from theytoldmesew:


Lovely isn't it? It's called 'Plum Crumble'.

Spinning with different fibers and with rovings dyed by other people has proven to be extremely educational. And that's exactly why I had to learn how to spin before I felt totally comfortable selling my hand dyed rovings. The colours change so much from roving to yarn and learning how they behave is changing the way that I apply the dye.

This skein is roughly 100g and came out at 161 yards. Totally usable. And pretty. It's subtler then the bright stuff I've been spinning lately, but still very pretty.