I spent the rest of Christmas day carding up the dark Shetland "roving" I purchased from Sharon, but I don't think I bought more than 50g, so I'll have to pick up some more when mom and I visit tomorrow. I ended up with a good stack of rolags to spin, but haven't been able to touch them since (worked yesterday and will be working today). Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to start spinning them.
I also started on a swatch in the grey/brown mystery fiber, to test how it blocks. I'm leery of lighting it on fire, but maybe once Lindsay gets back from Sturgis, I can recruit her into lighting it on fire for me. The yarn I do have spun from this stuff is too heavy to be used in the shawl, but I've still got plenty more, and the giant white batt that I haven't touched yet. These things are huge - the two batts fill a large green garbage bag and unfold to about 2" x 4" x 1". Lots of fiber to keep me going.
The shawl is probably going to be mainly white, with stripes in the edging of the two brown shades. Before I start knitting though, I'm probably going to buy Sharon Miller's new book Shetland Hap Shawls ~ Then & Now - I've already got her first book (bought it last year when I wrote a paper about knitting in the Shetland Islands), and hopefully this one will be just as good. It's a pity I can't just order it though work - then I'd get a nice bit of a discount.
That's all for now - I'll include pictures in the next post with the giant batts and my rolags, and possibly the swatch for the grey/brown yarn.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
New Beginnings
So, in addition to my personal blog, I've started this knitting blog. Mostly because my friends won't want to hear about my esoteric knitting gabble, but also to track progress on my knitting projects.
The current plan is to finish the current knitting projects I have (socks for Carol, mittens for Colette and possibly that scarf in Sea Silk for mom) and embark on my most ambitious project to date - a handspun hap shawl. The log cabin blanket I'm currently working on isn't going to be finished before I start this as I also need a simple project that is mindless for working on outside of lace.
The shawl is going to be made from white and grey/brown mystery wool (from Value Village), which I still need to check to see if it blocks properly, and the dark brown shetland wool that Golden Willow carries. I will need to pick up some more of the latter, as I've only got ~100 g of it. I still need to check that the mystery wool will block properly as I'm not entirely sure it's wool.
Based on the little bit of sampling I did, the yarn will be spun from hand carded rolags, to ~15 or so wraps per inch. It's not going to be lace weight, because I don't think I can keep the yarn even enough for a lace weight shawl. Besides, I need something slightly heavier to wear as a scarf in the winter.
The current plan is to finish the current knitting projects I have (socks for Carol, mittens for Colette and possibly that scarf in Sea Silk for mom) and embark on my most ambitious project to date - a handspun hap shawl. The log cabin blanket I'm currently working on isn't going to be finished before I start this as I also need a simple project that is mindless for working on outside of lace.
The shawl is going to be made from white and grey/brown mystery wool (from Value Village), which I still need to check to see if it blocks properly, and the dark brown shetland wool that Golden Willow carries. I will need to pick up some more of the latter, as I've only got ~100 g of it. I still need to check that the mystery wool will block properly as I'm not entirely sure it's wool.
Based on the little bit of sampling I did, the yarn will be spun from hand carded rolags, to ~15 or so wraps per inch. It's not going to be lace weight, because I don't think I can keep the yarn even enough for a lace weight shawl. Besides, I need something slightly heavier to wear as a scarf in the winter.
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