A FO!!!

Mum's cardigan is finally finished! Yay!! The pattern is "Refined Aran" from Interweave Knits Winter 2007.
Yes, that black blob is a completed cardigan (sans buttons - mum wants to choose those herself). I think I need some camera lessons so I can convey what it actually looks like, rather than just a cardigan shaped "thing" on my kitchen floor. It has cute little 3 stitch cables running down each front, mirrored on the back, & also running up each sleeve all the way up to the saddle shoulders.

The flash has washed this one out a bit, but this is the left shoulder. I just love the way those little cables meet & greet each other here.

This is about the fifth re-incarnation of this yarn as I wanted a "perfect" cardigan for mum. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it, but I think the sleeves are a little too long even though I did shorten them considerably. The bottom edges also want to curl, so I may try puffing at them with my iron ...

Anyway - Mum, I hope you like it!

Whoops

I was in town today having coffee with a friend (ok, so I did deliberately choose the cafe next door to the new yarn store) when I was overcome by Evoke's gravitational pull.
Some more scrummy sock yarn - this one's a little greener than the photo would suggest & is called "Neptune".

Some more page inserts for my KnitPicks set - I haven't been able to find these anywhere.
And lastly another Addi circular needle for use with sock-knitting.

This new store is going to be very difficult to resist. Oh, & I placed an order for a Namaste knitting bag ...

A completed sandwich

The Harrietville fibre sandwich is finished! From worrying about not having enough purple to ply my sandwich with, I now have 3/4 of a bobbin of purple left, & exactly 200 grams of spun sandwich. (My scales measure to the gram) I love the finished result & am very pleased with how soft it is. I was originally thinking cushion cover, but that may be a waste of delicious yarn whose colours positively zing against the purple (so glad I decided to go with purple). This photo doesn't quite do it justice - I'll have to try for a close up.

In other news, we had a new yarn & fabric store open up here in Lismore yesterday! It's name is Evoke & it contains all that I've been lusting after but haven't been able to get my sticky little fingers on. They carry Noro yarns, oodles of hand-dyed skeins of 8 & 4ply (hand-dyed sock yarns!!!!), Namaste knitting bags, & Addi & Knit Pro needles. I could have spent hundreds in there yesterday, but managed to restrict myself to one skein of sock yarn & a cute little wrap skirt pattern (sewing).

I've been going through some pretty severe yarn withdrawals since moving away from Melbourne, so I'm really excited by this new store. I will definately be going back for more!!!

The trouble with sampling ...

... is that you use up some of which you had planned to use for the real thing.

100 grams of spun purple (all I had) minus one sample skein equals nowhere near enough for this much sandwich.

I didn't weigh my portion before I spun it, but I'm estimating from such a full bobbin that it's more than 100 grams - closer to 150 I think.

Problem. That purple was a one off, individually dyed hank. What to do ... what to do ...

I'm rather fond of all things purple and blue & tend to collect them. I know - I'll go stash diving!

One trashed stash room & an hour or so later I emerged with another purple 100 gram roving. Score! It's not exactly the same (this one has a blob of blue near one end), but combined with the sandwich it should be close enough to fudge it. Now all I have to do is spin it up & hope for the best.

The magic pudding of sandwiches

What began with a simple little pile of fibre sandwich & a "good idea" turned into 3 days of handcarding a never diminishing, neverending pile of really interesting bits. (Oooo look - sparkles, oooo look - is that flax?) From being able to fit into the palms of both hands, it now fills a green shopping bag.

Finally, it's now all carded & ready to go.

Warm up

Isn't it funny the way ones perfectionism tendandcies come out? I don't normally do samples - I usually leap right in & hope for the best. (Whoever heard of sampling for a fibre sandwich?!)

I've been having a fun break from spinning the unending white by spinning some fibre sandwich from a while ago. I wanted to experiment a little with preparing it a little first before embarking on the "good" fibre sandwich all the way from Harrietville. First I ran the sandwich through my handcarders to slightly homogonize it & make it easier to spin (got to break up those cotton balls a bit otherwise they seem to fly all over the room instead of go where they should!). Then I spun up some purple fibre from the Blue Knob Gallery (I've been told that purple is the best colour to ply sandwiches with) & plied the two together.

I'm quite pleased with the result - a nicely balanced, not too bobbly yarn. Don't know what I'm going to do with it yet - it's only 84 grams. But as a test skein, I'm pleased.

Now for the real thing!

Long distance spin-in

For the last 5 months (I just counted that out in my head & I'm horrified!) I've been slowly (you're not kidding!) working my way through a kilo of white roving. It does have the odd fleck of colour through it, but it's soooo boring ...

On Wednesday, I received a lovely email from my lovely friend Textile Teresa. She said she had a portion of a fibre sandwich from Harrietville for me! When I arrived home from spinning group today, guess what was waiting for me?

It usually takes Australia Post a good 4 working days to get anything from Melbourne (Vic) to Lismore (NSW) so imagine my surprise & joy to get this so quickly!
Mmmm ... colours ... Mmmm ... different fibres ...
Mmmm ... it's not white!

I think I can feel my spinning mojo returning - I just have to spin this!

Now that we each have a portion, the idea is that we each spin our bit up, & pop it onto our blogs. Thanks Teresa!

Stay tuned!