A New Adventure part 2

So back to the story...

I started to get busy making dolls and I didn't pick up my spindle for months.  Then in January I decieded to make a doll sweater for my daughter and I thought it would be fun to spin the yarn before I knit it.

I had her pick out the fiber. It was a lovely merino, alpaca, silk blend that was handpainted in a yellow/green/blue colourway.

I was so excited when it came I started spinning it right away. It spun so smoothly I was finely able to move away from the "park and draft" and have a nice fluid movement.  And that was the point I fell in love with spinning. It was just so clam and peaceful, it was like meditation but I was producing something at the same time. A definite win, win situation in my book!

I really loved the colour of the singles and I didn't want to mix them up so I decided to try theNavajo/ Chain Ply method.  It was easier than I thought it would be. The nice thing about plying on a drop spindle is between gravity and the built up twist(energy) in the yarn it basically plies itself.

 

Here it is after I plied it but before it was washed. You can see it has a little bit of that energy and I was afraid it would be unbalanced.

But after I washed it and hung it to dry it balanced nicely, yea! 

So it took me 2 months to spin, ply, wash and dry the yarn.  I had designed the pattern, and now I was finally ready to knit the doll sweater.

That's when my daughter told me she didn't really think she wanted a doll sweater, she wanted fingerless gloves.

Yes, 2 months in the life of a 12 year old is just too long to stay committed to an idea. At least the yarn was ready and I thought I remembered seeing a fingerless glove pattern somewhere...

Time to pull out the magazines and search Ravelry!

Happy New Year!

Oh, I can't believe it's already 2014!!!

I have a lot to catch up on.

I made this 18" Waldorf doll for a sweet little girl who loves purple and ladybugs over the summer.

I designed the smocking pattern for this dress. It took a few samples but I am happy with the way the final turned out. I found this beautiful cotton calico at Patricia's Fabric House.http://www.patriciasfabrichouse.com/ 

which is also where I found this adorable ladybug button.

 The sweater I knit out of Sublime (75%extra fine merino, 20% silk and 5% cashmere). It was wonderful to knit with. I'm sad to say that the shop I bought this yarn from The Yarn Boutique closed it's doors for good this past week. If I could encourage everyone to purchase from locally owned and small owner operated businesses when possible so we don't lose these more these gems.

Homespun

Remember the yarn I spun back in January? http://tookenstale.blogspot.com/2013/01/drop-spindle.html Well I finally made it into a hat. It was a chunky weight yarn and with only 3 oz it wasn't quite enough to make a hat for myself so I gave the hat to Amelia.

  

 

Here it is on the spindle single ply.

Here it is after I double plied and washed it.

It was a lot of fun knitting something from yarn that I spun myself. And now I have a better idea of how much wool it takes for a finished project.

Happy Easter!

Here are three little chicks I made using another one of Gingermelon's adorable patterns!

You can find the pattern in here etsy shop here http://www.etsy.com/listing/127658145/easter-bunny-and-chick-pdf-pattern?ref=shop_home_feat

But there is something extra special about these chicks!

I made them into pins:)

My daughter and I will get to where these cute little fellas on Easter!

Happy Easter!

Julie

Here is Julie. She was all made up and it was time to start work on her hair. She was very excited to be able to go out and choose her own hair colour. The whole way there she was asking should I be a blonde or a brunette. I guess I should have realized then that she was going to have a hard time making decisions. 

After about 45 minutes at the store she narrowed down her choices.  She chose to be a blonde but then couldn't decide on the shade.

It was getting late so I told her we could bring both of them home and decide which was her favourite later.

She was quite happy. But when we got home she just couldn't sit still. She looked at the yarn in different rooms to see if the lighting made a difference. Then she preceded to put the yarn on her head and ask everyone in the house what they thought.

First the light one.

Then the darker shade.

Then she remembered something.

 She had seen pictures of Angelina's hair and thought maybe combining the two shades would work.

While she was in the dolly workshop she stumbled across a third shade of yarn and tried all three together.

What a dilemma!

Julie would like to know what you think.

You can leave your comments here or on the facebook page.

Thank You for your help!

Drop Spindle

I have always been amazed at the process of taking fibers and turning them into yarn. I did have a chance to try using  a drop spindle when I was working on a project in Mexico many, many years ago.  There was a women on the project who was working with the spindle whorls that were found at the site. They were really beautiful.
 
 I wish I had some pictures of them.  The pictures above are from a different Aztec site but look  similar. They are made out of clay and came in all different sizes the smallest for cotton and the large ones were for maguey fibers which come from a cactus. We were so interested in how they worked. The women ( I can't remember her name :( but she was very nice) gave us a demonstration and then let us all try.  Some of the ladies took to it right away. I was not one of them. The cotton kept breaking and I couldn't get a good spin going. I figured it was just not my thing and moved on.

Now many, many, years later I've decided to give it another try. For Christmas I got a drop spindle and some wool fiber. I think wool is much more forgiving than cotton. I also got the book Respect the Spindle   . I thought it was a very good book for a begginer, I was able to start spinning the same day.

At the top of the blog you can see my very first single ply yarn. I did end up double plying it in the Andean style. Here it is after it has been washed and set.

I still need to work on getting it even and it turned out chunkier than I thought it would but it's usable and that makes me happy :) !