It's harder than it looks

Em spinning in her jammies

Both the girls have been trying their hand at spinning on Gramma Kay's wheel. I won't let them touch mine, but Kay is very generous with her equipment. :o) They have both practiced just treadling, and also spinning with some White Buffalo Unspun that I had around and used when I was first starting. Elise seems very at ease with the process. Emily is analyzing it and maybe making it harder than it needs to be at this point, but they are both doing very well. You need to get ready for your lesson, Kay!

I have been doing some spinning and some blending and some more spinning. First I made about 175 yards of 2 ply natural colored Blue faced Leicester (I looked it up because I didn't know how it was pronounced: "Lester") and you can see from the quick sample that it's not super even, but still nice and soft.


Then there is some wool from the Fiber Event I've been playing with. I made a really nice 3-ply - my first!! - shown here in the picture on the left, and then determined I would like to use it to make the Sunrise Circle Jacket (.pdf file) by Kate Gilbert. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough for that entire project, but decided I could blend it on the drum carder with some natural brown ram's wool(also purchased at said Event) for a nice yarn, shown on the right in this picture. You can't really see the swatch, but it's nice. I will have plenty for the sweater, and decided I would make it 2-ply because I can't imagine having the patience to do 3900 yards of singles for a 3 ply. This is my first time really calculating and spinning for a specific project, and I hope I'm doing it right!


Another thing I've been working on is a quicky cardigan, the Stevie from It's a Tape Thing
(but I call it Stella??) out of color 550 Electric Rowan Cotton Tape. This is going fast, and I'm enjoying some immediate gratification: I'm already done with 1-1/2 sleeves.


Finally, talking about a quick payoff, I spent an evening knitting up the Berroco free pattern for the Air Bear using ?? color of Air, about 1/2 a ball. Obvi I still need to sew on a face, but he's still super-cute! This is a really simple and satisfying little knit. I love making toys!



Personal Note: I'm not sure how frequently I'll be posting in the next couple weeks or so. My parents are having some health issues and I'm keeping pretty busy with them. I'm sure I'll be knitting a lot - it's my biggest stress reliever! - so when I'm back I'll probably have plenty to post about.