September 20, 2009
Making it up as I go
I've been working on this stole on and off for many months, using the laceweight merino/silk/bamboo I spun from Juliespins batts. I'd wanted to knit the Sampler Stole from A Gathering of Lace, but wanted to knit a different center.
So I decided to use the alternate center pattern from Sharon Miller's Wedding Ring Shawl instead.
The borders are knit pretty much as given. But I haven't decided what edging to use yet....
Current spinning:
Soft and fluffy natural-colored 50/50 camel/silk fiber from Spunky Eclectic on my seemingly jet-propelled Golding Fleur spindle. It should make a fine and shiny laceweight.
And, finally, my public service announcement for the day: Susanna Lewis' Knitting Lace is being reprinted next month. One less thing to stalk eBay for!
Posted by missalicefaye at 07:58 PM
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August 18, 2009
Rosemary
At last, it is finished! To recap: this is the Rosemary Shawl, designed by Gladys Amedro. The yarn was spun on a spindle from 8 oz of Enchanted Knoll Farm batts in Cleopatra (approximately 1800 yards of laceweight). I was worried that I might run out of yarn, but hooray! I had a bit left over.
The sparkly yarn is hard to capture, but I like the way the color variations in the batts play out in the square shawl. Subtle stripes please me.
Posted by missalicefaye at 09:30 AM
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Posted to Rosemary Shawl
July 21, 2009
Spinning plus
No updates on the Rosemary Shawl this week, but I do have spinning!
Pictured above is laceweight yarn spindle-spun from various batts. From left, Squoosh batt (merino, firestar, bamboo), Juliespins batt in Walnut (merino, silk, bamboo), Abby batt in Devon Cream (organic merino, silk, cashmere), Enchanted Knoll Farm batt in Queen Mermaid (superwash merino, sari silk, firestar). All of these were spun on roughly 0.5 oz spindles and plied on my Tracy Eichheim spider spindle:
(Also an Enchanted Knoll Farm batt, this one in Dragon's Blood.) For my spindle-spun yarns, I spin two equal amounts of fiber and transfer the singles to toilet paper rolls. Then I wind the two singles together on my ball winder and ply from that. No pesky tangles!
And some random tatting. No idea what I will do with this. It's kind of fun to work on for about 20 minutes at a time. Knitting is better, though. :)
Posted by missalicefaye at 11:12 AM
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Posted to Spinning
| Tatting
July 14, 2009
Lacy things and tasty things
It's been a while, hasn't it? There was a kitchen renovation in there that sucked up a lot of psychic energy, but I think things are mostly back to normal now.
(More photos here for the curious.)
Anyway, back to my current lace knitting project--a handspun Rosemary shawl, as shown above. One really nice thing about Gladys Amedro's shawls is that they're worked from the outside in, meaning the rows get shorter and faster the further you go.
The sparkle level is more accurate in this photo. The yarn is spun from Cleopatra batts from Enchanted Knoll Farm--8 ounces on my little Ethan Jakob spindle. The shawl has eaten up a lot of yarn so far, though, so I'm eying the remaining skeins a bit nervously....
In addition to the ubiquitous lace knitting, projects have been multiplying around here at a somewhat alarming rate.
There is spinning, of course. This is tussah silk acquired at Connecticut Sheep and Wool last year. (There are many other spinning projects in progress, but they should probably wait for a post of their own.)
Some of you may notice from this photo that I've dug out the Dear Jane blocks again. (!) But I'm considering a smaller quilt at this point, with some different colors. We'll see how that goes. :)
A new kitchen means a revived interest in making tasty foods. We made butter this weekend with this as guidance, but using a food processor instead of a stand mixer. Easy and yum. We subsequently used the butter in French toast, rhubarb cobbler, and raspberry cream cheese muffins.
(Tatting has even made a reappearance, but I've no photos to back that up yet.)
Posted by missalicefaye at 02:37 PM
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Posted to Dear Jane
| Rosemary Shawl
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March 23, 2009
Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf
From Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia. Knit with handspun yarn from organic merino/silk/firestar Abby batts, spun on a 0.4oz Greensleeves Ethan Jacob spindle. Still a lot left over from my two ounces.
The organic merino makes for a fabulously soft and squishy yarn. Plus, it's a happy, happy orange. :)
As usual, I've been doing lots of knitting and spinning, and not nearly enough photo-taking. But I shall leave you with some shots of my most recent spindle, a Bosworth Moosie whose whorl is made from moose antler.
Mouse nibbles!
Posted by missalicefaye at 10:45 AM
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Posted to Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf
