| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 |
| No gift like a handspun gift |
Not too long ago, I was at a market with a couple friends of mine who were admiring some fingerless gloves. It occurred to me that these were the perfect project for some of the handspun I've got lying around and cast on for a pair as soon as I got home. The first pair was in various shades of blue and has already been giving to my friend Alissa who says their perfect for bike riding and this purple pair is for her partner Sabrina, who will get hers soon and then they can run around in 'Partnerlook' ;)
I knit them a little long, but they look nice with the cuff folded over. Worn long, I find them good for 7/8 and 3/4 sleeved things. I will probably make a pair for myself soon, but first I will have to spin some more, since what I have now is either too bulky or is reserved for a swap I have to mail as soon as I get my butt to the LYS to buy another skein I'm sending along. I hope I'm sending the right sort of thing, as my swap partner (from Swapbot) weaves, she doesn't knit, and I'm not sure how particular the yarn has to be so that it's nicely weavable. If any of you happen to be able to provide any guidance on this, please let me know!
Other than that, I'm done knitting a baby sweater I started over Christmas for my friend Julie's baby. I heard about her pregnancy just after Matthias and I got back from our trip to Canada, so I missed out on seeing her before the baby was born. It's too bad, because she was the first from our group of girls who lived together during our first year at university. We were all so excited when we heard. I can't wait to see who's next. I think it may be a while though, because I am the only one who seems to hear the biological clock, and kids are out of the question for us until we're a bit more settled. I don't think I've mentioned before that we've decided to move to Canada, for many reasons. So no little people at least til after the big move. But, although Julie was recently engaged and moved into a new house, she wasn't planning on being a mommy yet either, so I guess you never know. Some of the babies I've known who've brought the most joy were also the most unexpected. If life can't throw us a few surprises now and then, what the heck are we here for? ;)
  Labels: Knitting, Spinning |
posted by tatjana @ 12:17 p.m.   |
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| Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
| I'm not just a crabby whiner... ;) |
I actually still craft too. As I mentioned, things have been busy, leaving little time or energy for craftiness, but as I'm sure all of you know, it's still damn hard to just go cold turkey. We always find just a little time somewhere, don't we? So here is my latest hanspun, a single ply that can be knit up on 4.5mm needles, I think, which should be a heavy worsted. It's a little overspun, because I don't often spin single ply (ha! as though I'm an expert at everything else, LOL), and wasn't sure as I was spinning if I would ply it after all with string or something for a curlier boucle sort of effect. In the end I decided against it though. I've always been fond of the colour variations in Noro, and was aiming for something similar here, with larger sections of colour, as opposed to the stripes I tried before. They look a little mixed up in the picture, but the colours all come one after the other, without any repetition. It's about 155m (~170 yards maybe?) and I'm not sure what to do with it. A scarf would probably the easiest solution, and would show off the colours well, but I really have enough scarves. And selfishly enough, I would kinda like to keep this for myself because I really like the way the colours came together. I suppose it doesn't have to be something to wear. I could maybe make some free form knit art to hang on the wall. I've seen pieces like that on Flickr and elsewhere online, and I find them really interesting. Another idea I had was to combine it with some grey single ply I have which is more or less the same weight and almost the same colour as the medium grey portion in the yarn itself. This just may give me enough for a small shrugish sorta thing. We'll see. If anyone has another suggestion of something that would work with this yarn, please do let me know, I'm terrible at deciding this sort of thing :)
 Labels: Spinning |
| posted by tatjana @ 11:43 a.m. |
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| Saturday, October 21, 2006 |
| A backlog of craftiness |
Ok, I'm a bit behind on crafting and even more behind on picture taking, but rest assured I am working on things! I finally decided to put my sweaters on hold in favour of some quicker knits using my accumulating handspun. Look, here's another skein now....
I love how this one turned out, I'm a total sucker for warm tones. I haven't decided whether or not I want to put up some of my yarn for sale on etsy. I if I do, this will be one of the first skeins, even though I love it so much. Maybe even because I do. Somehow, I like it just the way it is. I wouldn't want to make something out of it. But someone else probably does, and every good yarn deserves to be made into something, dontcha think?
Still on the wheel is a single of a space dyed roving in various blues which will soon be a 2-ply reminiscent of the Twilight yarn from this post. But much more exciting, is the super fun rainbow yarn I made especially for fun kiddy knitting:
This is already on the needles, on its way to becoming mittens. It's about 180m altogether, so it should be enough for a matching hat too! Can you tell I desperately need kids to knit for? ;) No, not really, but it's fun knitting these nevertheless.
I also finally decided what to do with my Canadian Fall yarn, it's going to be a scarf with leaf pattern. I'll post a pic as soon as I have a bit more of it done. Tomorrow I will try to find some decent lighting to take pictures of fab thrifty finds. I went to our local and fairly new charity shop and totally scored! I found a bunch of adorable doily type things (much more shappy chic than tacky grandma) and a couple other pieces I wasn't expecting. They really must be shown off, because back home I was a champion thrifter, matched only by my mother, the finder of the $5 Prada bag (I shit you not). Alas, here there is little thrifting joy to be found, so when there is some, I must shout it from the hilltops for all to share! Here be bargains! Of pretty things no less!
And if that wasn't enough backlog, tonight I will have to complete the pendant I made in a jewellery workshop today so I can show you all tomorrow. It's a crazy, abstract piece of silver that I cut and filed and soldered (sorta, there was help) and polished all by myself! It was very fun. But it's already getting dark here in Deutschland, so there can be no picture taking til tomorrow, and anyway, the pendant needs a bead for colour and they didn't have the right one at the workshop so I'll have to raid my bead stash. I hope I have something in the right size and colour....wish me luck!
Labels: Knitting, Other Craftiness, Spinning, Thrifting |
| posted by tatjana @ 6:06 p.m. |
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| Monday, October 02, 2006 |
| I'm a spinning mah-cheen!! |
Oh yes. Yes I am. I got lovely new wool to spin with on Friday and I just haven't been able to keep my hands off it. I had been neglecting my poor wheel for a while and as I tried to get back in the spin mode I realized I really didn't have much to work with and decided to treat myself to some new woolies. I bought some space dyed wool for the first time, something I didn't do before because I really wanted to dye my own, but I've since realized what a pain dyeing can be with limited space. I dye yarn from time to time, but I think roving, particularly handpainted, will have to wait til we have a fair bit more counter space and a good setup for drying things flat. Anyway, you're probably thinking I should shut up and show you the yarn already, so here are the fruits of my labor:
I'm so happy with them I named them :) Morning Glory, Twilight and Autumnsong. The first two are the results of the space dyed, which spun up really quickly and just all around too easy to make such pretty yarn! Why on earth I waited so long is beyond me. The third, Autumnsong, is more of my fall nostalgia in my first attempt at striped yarn. I picked out a blend of autumny colours and then spun large sections of each colour. I navajo plied it, to keep the colour sequence, but the single had a little too much twist and so didn't turn out so hot in a couple places when I tried to Navajo ply it. Overall though, it's ok for a first try. The stripe sequence repeats 3 times, and I'm hoping it's enough for a hat, around 70m/75yards. Maybe a kids' hat? If I keep spinning like this, I'm gonna end up with alot of yarn for little projects. Maybe I should just make sure it's thin enough for socks. I only wish I wore wool socks, lol :) Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something! Well, of to work on another skein, this one's a mix of gorgeous, rosy, lipgloss colours, I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Labels: Spinning |
| posted by tatjana @ 8:14 p.m. |
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