Next projects

I've been working on kitchen towels. Lots and lots of kitchen towels. I decided last year that I would give handwoven kitchen towels as Christmas gifts to my friends and family. Instead of weaving lengths and lengths of samples I weave kitchen towels. It's a good way to learn and to create something useful. If I keep up the current pace I should be done by mid November.

Finally pic of the baby blanket

P1010038
Originally uploaded by karrelle

Finally! A pic of the baby blanket that was the thorn in my side for the entire summer. This is woven in soy with the M and W pattern. The yarn is variegated so it's a bit difficult the see the MW pattern. The blanket ended up being shorter than I wanted so I have since woven another blanket and will give it to my nephew for Christmas.

DK The Nautical Knitter is having a contest

DK The Nautical Knitter is having a contest. Go on over to her blog (http://www.nauticalknitter.com/) to check it out and to enter.

Tour de Fleece Maillot Jaune 2008

Yikes! Finally I am posting my Maillot Jaune 2008 image. Before I started I thought it would take me the whole race to spin for the sweater but I finished sooner than expected so I decided to spin from my stash. I didn't get to spin as much of my stash as I had hoped because I was spinning very fine yarns for weaving. Spinning from my stash is over and above my original goal and I didn't set a specific amount so I have decided I met my original goal of spinning for a sweater so I am taking the Maillot Jaune.

What I'm working on now is a woven blanket for my sister's baby who due in September. I struggled with this blanket for the whole summer. My sister strongly believes it is a boy so she wanted a blue and green blanket for him. We went to fibrefest in Abbotsford and picked out the yarn but we didn't buy enough yarn. There definitely is not enough yarn to weave the whole blanket. There isn't even enough for the warp when shrinkage and loom waste is taken into consideration.

I kept thinking about how I was going to make it work without buying more yarn. I decided to use some turqoise yarn I had in my stash for the warp. If it doesn't work out then I cut the fabric up and make bags out of it and try to weave another blanket.

I warped back to front and is half finished slaying the reed. I should be able to start weaving later today. I will take pictures later.

Finally some pics

I had said that I would blog "tomorrow" with some pics but never did. Sorry. The reason is because I couldn't figure out how to blog multiple pics from Flickr. I have since figured it out and hope it works.

This is BFL dyed by Yummy Yarn in the braid.



I unbraided the fibre and divided it up for two bobbins. I mixed the pieces up and spun them randomly so that when I plied it together, it would look random.



This is the single on one of the bobbins.



A pic of the final laceweight yarn. The pic is a bit blurry because my camera was not behaving.



This is another fibre I spun up laceweight. It is 100% merino from Fat Cat Knits I tried to spin it more systematically so that the colours would line up when plied together. It did not work out so well but it looks very pretty anyways.



This is the yarn plied together. Again the pic is blurry.

Both of these yarns are meant to be woven into something. I have not decided what yet. I am going to let it sit a while and hopefully it will tell me in good time what it wants to be.



This is my next spinning project. It is 70% merino, 30% silk. I divided it into three sections to spin up into a three ply yarn to knit into a toque. I have finished spinning the singles and is in the process of plying it. It is turning out very nice and even. I will try to post a pic of it once I am finished plying it.

Done with Tour de Fleece

On the positive side, I did manage to spin the yarn for a sweater.

On the negative side, I did not get to spin as much as I had wanted after I finished spinning the yarn for the sweater. The main reason is because I spun the yarn very thin because I intend to use it for weaving. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Yarn for a sweater and more

Yarn for a sweater
Originally uploaded by karrelle

I have finished spinning the yarn for the sweater. All 635 grams of it. The skeins are drying as I type after a bath to set the twist.