February Lady Sweater

Has it really been two months since I was last here? I guess it has, whoops. Seems like this year just slipped by somehow. I blinked and suddenly it's almost over.


But I've crammed a lot into these last couple of months. I turned 30! I dyed my hair blonde (one last crazy thing to do in my twenties). I started school. I went to SOAR (and Rhinebeck too).


And I finished a sweater! This is my first ever handspun/handknit sweater and I love it. I've worn it almost every single day for the last three weeks.


Pattern: February Lady Sweater
Yarn: Superwash Merino (Plum Posies Colorway dyed by Julia Vesper) spun by me into an Aran/chunky weight three-ply (took about 26 ounces)

posted by Cheryl @ 4:35 PM 41 comments

Spinning!

So I am going to SOAR this fall! And taking the highly coveted J-Mac class too. How crazy is that?! I can't wait. I hadn't planned on making anything special for it, but then I was talking to Kelly at TKGA and she got me all fired up about the idea of a handspun/handknit sweater.

It seemed like such an achievable goal back in July: a sweater for October, no big deal at all, right? Ha! We're now a mere 7 weeks away from leaving, and I just finally buckled down and got going on it last week.

First I had to clear off the Schacht bobbins. First off was some mohair/wool/angelina fiber that I got last Rhinebeck from Persimmon Tree Farm:



A 4 oz skein, laceweight single. I'm not sure what the yardage is, but I think it's enough for a nice shawl. I should count it up, actually, now that I think about it. I love that it reminds me of the beach. Lots of blue shades and a little yellow in there, like the sun.

Then some more Persimmon Tree Farm fiber. This stuff I got at NH Sheep and Wool this year. Just mohair and wool, no angelina in this one:



That's 8 ounces, and about 300 yards.

Then I started spinning my sweater yarn! I love this stuff! I have 12 ounces spun up so far, and about 350 yards. Wow is this a dense yarn! It's a good solid worsted weight, and it's a three ply, which is a real yarn eater. Even considering all that, I'm surprised at the low yardage. And it's not like it feels like thick, heavy rope. It feels soft and bouncy and nice.



It's superwash merino, custom dyed by Julia of Knitterly Things.

I made a little swatch last night and the fabric it makes is so great! So soft and squishy and tweedy. I'm planning to cast on the (ubiquitous) February Lady Sweater tonight with the yarn I've made, and then keep on spinning to keep up with my knitting. With a little luck we'll have this done in time for SOAR!

I'll be working on it tomorrow at Fiber Revival so you can see it then. The weather is supposed to turn nice in the morning, so let's hope for a nice sunny day!

posted by Cheryl @ 4:26 PM 24 comments

Finally, a little something finished!


This is the first thing I've cast off since the Seafoam Scarf, way back in April! Yikes! Not a productive summer for me.


This is just a simple stockinette scarf with some drop stitch rows thrown in there for variety. But the yarn is SO COOL! It's Judi & Co Rayon Corde in the color Abalone, which I think looks just like an oily puddle. It's a soft core, wrapped in this rayon stuff. here's a close-up:


I got one skein of it from DreamWeaver at TKGA and it made a very respectably sized scarf. About 4 inches wide and 70+ inches long. It rolls right up though, so it's more like 2 inches wide. That's okay, since skinny scarves are in style, apparently. It feels very cool too. Smooth and heavy, like a snake.

I don't have any pictures of me wearing it though. I know, shocking! Maybe I can get some this weekend. In the meantime (since no FO post is complete without me plastering this place with several pictures of myself) how about this?

How's that for a gorgeous sweater?? It's not mine, sadly. I just wore it for Alison's pictures. I want one now though, it's so flattering. You can get the pattern here, if you want to make one too. Once I had it on I didn't want to give it back!

posted by Cheryl @ 4:57 PM 23 comments

It's August

Wow, I missed the whole month of July! Sorry about that. How about just a quick catch up and then we'll resume more regular blogging.

First though, just a reminder that Fiber revival is only 2 weeks away! And there are still spots in all the classes, so go on over and sign up. Or just swing by and hang out for a while with us. It was so much fun last year, and I'm hoping it will be even better this time around.

Anyway - here's a quick recap of my last month:

1. I went on vacation


Bigger pics
2. I visited Erin's vacation and we went to the the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm


3. I made a colonial dress and hat and demonstrated wheel spinning at Strawbery Banke for the 4th of July (I know, just when you think I've gotten as eccentric as possible, I manage to take it to the next level)


Bigger pics
4. I did dome jar dyeing with the usual crowd at Terry's


5. I went to the TKGA conference, took an excellent class with Nancie Wiseman, shopped the market, and spent a whole fantastic weekend with some of my best girls


And I think that just about catches us up! I've got a few spinning projects going, and I have grand plans of a handspun/handknit sweater to be done in time for SOAR; but I'll tell you all about that next time.

posted by Cheryl @ 12:30 PM 14 comments

Batty

I have gone completely batty. I have a neighbor who uses that word ALL the time. Things are driving her batty, she's going batty, our other neighbors are totally batty . . . every time I talk to her that word comes up somehow. And now it's creeping into my vocabulary.

I spent much of the miserably hot weekend cranking away on the drum carder. It was like a little sweatshop in my living room, with the windows open and fan going, but not cooling things down much. I had to stop when I started getting a little touch of heat stroke. Ha!

Anyway, I don't know what possessed me, but I tore through the fiber stash looking for things to card up. I finished the black alpaca/tencel, ending up with about 8.5 ounces total.

Then, since I still had some tencel, I made some Gotland/tencel batts too, about 4 ounces worth.


Next up was some black shetland. I took a light blue silk hankie, drafted it out into thin pencil roving, cut it into 3 inch pieces, and blended it with the black shetland. I've got about 4 ounces of that blend too.


It looks white and brown in these pictures, but it's really light silvery blue and black
Then I took another, darker silk hankie, one that was mainly blue but had that sort of oily-puddle rainbow look to it (I just remembered I took a picture of it when I bought it, you can see it here) and blended that with the black shetland too:


What I am going to do with all these batts I have no idea. Maybe I should start a batt club. Those seem to be all the rage now. You could all sign up and every month I'll pull something out of my closet, put it through the drum carder, and send it off to you. Haha! I crack myself up.

posted by Cheryl @ 4:41 PM 14 comments