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Monday, October 9, 2017

How Fibres are Spun....

I keep forgetting to post this here:

How Fibres are Spun

Interesting!

A Finished Shawl

I finished my shawl at last. It's all blocked and dry so here are pictures, links and details:

Pattern: Lilac Lace Shawl

Yarn: Handspun merino from commercially combed & dyed top

Fibre from Wingham Wool Work

Colour: Yorkshire Rainbow

Wheel: Ashford Traveller

Spun very fine singles for a lace weight 2 ply yarn

750 mtrs 123g. (shawl used 747 mtrs)

Finished shawl (blocked) measures 200 cm wide x 110 cm deep at centre point.



Here's my wee Dora peeking round the corner

















I'm very happy with both the spinning and the shawl pattern. I would knit this pattern again, it's ideal for hand spun yarn. I didn't have quite enough yarn and knew I would run out ~ so on the pattern charts I worked row 203 then moved onto row 211 and did the maths to re-align the pattern repeats, this gave me a seamless transition into the final pattern band (for the points).

I've started making sample cards for all of my hand spun yarns, I never used to bother keeping records but I really think it's quite important to do so. It enables me to refer back to how I spun a particular fibre, the finished yarn weight, meterage etc. I use large luggage tags and attach a sample of the single I'm spinning and a mini skein of the plied yarn along with the details of the fibre I have spun:


I also finished off my crochet sock yarn scrap blanket:

It weighs 880g and measures 170cm square, a labour of love considering I'm no crocheter. I used a 2.5 mm hook and tried to stick to brights and bolds:




So now I find myself left with all the neutral toned sock yarn leftovers~ I'm thinking there may be another blanket in due course!













Wednesday, October 4, 2017

More Dyeing and a Hand Knit Shawl


I dyed up some more fibre a few days ago. Firstly the last of my superwash merino combed top, in shades of purples, pinks and grey toned blues, 300g:












Then I dyed some Falkland combed top in shades of golds and peachy tones:












I've started spinning the Falkland fibre up today:


It's quite soft and I'm enjoying working with it, it's the first time I've used Falkland. Spinning it on my e-spinner (which doesn't get enough use).















Good progress this week on my shawl, I'm down to the last few rows of the pattern but I know I will be short of yarn so I'm currently trying to fudge the pattern finish lol: