Saturday 26 February 2011

Fruits of my labours

Good afternoon! It's been rather a gloomy day here on the North Norfolk coast - perfect knitting and spinning weather though! I've tried to do some spinning most days since getting back from my weekend away, and now have three skeins of reasonably knittable yarn.
I used a braid of BFL superwash from the Skein Queen for my first go. Even though I thought that I'd given the yarn a lot of twist, when it came to the Navajo plying, it soon became apparent that I hadn't, as I got quite a few breaks, so I have too many lumpy joins. It's really soft yarn though, and I can see the benefits of this plying method to show off really long colour runs. I will probably knit this into a snuggly hat for next winter.

Navavjo plying attempt 1

The next fibre I chose came from Colourful Designs, and is a 70/30 mix of BFL and seacell. The seacell gives it a silky sheen and it feels rather luxurious. This wasn't as slippy to spin as I'd thought it might be, and I decided to split the fibre into two halves and then spin them as singles before plying them. I've ended up with almost 200m of yarn - enough for a little neck shawl I think!

BFL/silk blend

For my third try, I used some merino cross that I'd bought from the EasyKnits stand at KnitNation last summer. Merino isn't as easy to spin as BFL as the fibres are more slippy. I decided to have another try at Navajo plying, and spun a thicker yarn to try and avoid breakages. I'm really pleased with how the finished yarn looks. The colours are lovely, and slightly chalky compared with the original fibre. It's a pretty chunky yarn, and there's not much of it. I do have a little project in mind for it though, so watch this space!

Somewhere over the Rainbow

All of this spinning means that not much knitting has been done. I've finished both sleeves on my Peasy cardigan and am knitting my way down the body, but it doesn't make for very exciting blogging!! I've done a few more granny squares for the Crochet a Rainbow project, and I need to play catch up with my Innocent Smoothie hats. And today I received a pattern from Anne Hanson that I'm test knitting, so I need to concentrate on that for the next few days. I need more hours in my day! Have a good week, and I hope you find some time to knit or spin too! xxx

10 comments:

faith76 said...

Agree with the never enough hours in a day .... I relish my time at about 8ish at night when my little one is in bed and I can grab my knitting. :)

Clicky Needles said...

Looks like you've had a lovely time all to yourself. Just how it should be.

Stadtwaldvogel said...

Your yarns are wonderful, Helen! You are making good progress!
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Julia

Northern Monkey said...

More hours in the day for knitting would be wonderful!

Your spinning is looking great, I can't wait to see it knit up :)

snoopydogknits said...

Your spinning is looking good! Gorgeous colours. I wonder what you will make! Have a good week back at school. xRos

Jennyff said...

You might have to give up the day job you have so much to do yarnwise. You must be itching to get knitting with your own handspun, it looks gorgeous.

Squirrel said...

Thank you! Josiekitten, for my Pay It Forward gift. Things have been a bit hectic at my end. I'm going to post pictures on my blog today and start the competition for me to gift to 3 others. x

WildflowerWool said...

Wow, what an amazing job you did with your spinning. I love all the colours!

Anonymous said...

Oh! I love all your handspun, but that seacell/BFL is divine! I love how the color turned out.

melissa said...

gorgeous amazing work!!
i love them all, but ooooh that last one, it takes my breath away!