A beautiful morning

A beustiful sunrise:

Yesterday morning that is. I’ve made some progress on the Fiddlehead mittens. I spun the last colour after I finished knitting, and now I’m just waiting for the last contrast colour to dry to finish the first mitten. Or at least half the first mitten. Lining will be added after I finish both.

There’s also been some progress on the Triinu shawl, Till minne. Very soon I will pass the halfway point on the centre piece. Two thirds of the height is already done but that is another story. In March next year I will attend another workshop with Triinu Andreasson again. It’s going to be great.

There will be ripping

It was time for me to wake up and smell the coffee. The Fiddlehead mitten is too big for my hands. At first I just assumed it would be alright, because lining will be added. But come on there’s only so much a thin fabric can do.

I did do a swatch and I tried to spin accordingly but it is very difficult. So, I’ve spun some more and thinner, and I’ve started on the second mitten. This one is slightly smaller, and so far it matches the numbers in the pattern. However, it would be a shame if I couldn’t use the yarn I made for the first mitten. I’m gonna try and knit it again on smaller needles. Hopefully the fabric won’t feel like armour. Ripping will commence shortly.

Progress on the Fiddleheads

I’m knitting on the first mitten as soon as the yarn dries. The pattern is great; I really like it. It’s been quite difficult to spin consistently, despite having made a sample card. The first batch of main and contrasting colours are thicker than what was the goal and a bit thick and thin. However, since this is  my first time spinning for a particular project it’s coming along quite nicely and I’ll love the mittens mo matter what.

The last yarn made is actually quite consistent and I think rather close to the sample I made earlier this summer. So if I can make the rest of the yarn like this the second mitten will be perfect.

Fiddlehead spinning

During my vacation I started to sample the fibres for the Fiddlehead mittens. It was lovely to spin the BFL/silk. It ran smoothly and rather OK when it comes to consistency. I made a sample card with unwashed singles and plied yarn to have as a reference when spinning the yarn for the project. The first attempt was terribly wrong. I tried to make an under-spun single and over-spun ply. But it was too thick and very airy. Sample two on the other hand had the correct wpi (more or less). But when swatching it just didn’t add up to the correct gauge. Changing needles didn’t help. So I looked at the pattern and realised the gauge was for stranded knitting….. Some spinning later and I had two sample yarns; the BFL/silk and coloured merino.

This time the swatch had the correct gauge. Both in row and stitch count. As can be seen in the picture I had some difficulties spinning the merino consistently. Even though I feel I spun them the same way the end result differs. I haven’t spun so many different fibres, but it is really interesting to feel and see the difference between them.

There are about 25 m merino and 32 m of BFL/silk drying in the bathroom. I can’t wait to start to cast on for the mittens, even though it is still summer.

800g of Fibre

Two packages were waiting for me when I came home from work yesterday.

The white envelope contained July’s fibre from Spinspiration. This month’s feeling was envious. It’s 100g of grey Jacob wool. This time I’m not entirely certain what to make, so I will wait and see what others create.

In the second parcel were, believe it or not, my order from World of wool. I placed the order on Friday just before noon and it arrived Monday. Great service or what! The price is very reasonable as well only £27.50 for 700g of fibre including shipping.

Contents (from top left to bottom right):

-100g of 50/50 brown alpaca/bleached tussah silk

-100g of silk hankies

-2 times 100g of 70/30 white Blue Faced Leicester/bleached tussah

-3 times 100g of merino Colors: turquoise, spearmint and chocolate

I’ve of course opened the zip locks to pet the fibres and they are utterly gorgeous. So soft and shiny.  All but the silk hankies are procured in order to make the Fiddlehead mittens by Adrian Bizilla. The silk hankies simply had to be mine and it is something I’ve been wanting to try for awhile now. Think I will buy some silk dye at Panduro.