So many fun ones already! I'm especially loving Red Tide, Carnival, and Flowers in the sky.

My first few months as a spinner, I rocked the singles and plying made me anxious. Looks like I'm overcoming that really fast!
80 yds of Sheep Studio roving plied at a heavy worsted weight, dyed with acid dyes.     


160 yds heavy sport/ thin worsted (?) 2-plied and dyed with acid dyes. I keep trying for "chartreuse" but always get neon green! Grrr.    

Rubysdaughter, I had a yarn called andes mint too!
Lubee- that picture is precious!

The colors are so amazing this week, I love what everyone's doing and envy all of your natural light. It's gross out here, but fortunately, I've been snapping away all week!
Here's an experiment with spinning thick 'n thin:

I've also been enjoying plying it really tightly together- it makes an impractically heavy yarn, but I love the way it looks:

And here's my billionth attempt at coming up with lavender. It's still not lavender. Oi.

I got my first order from Carol at The Sheep Studio (http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/Roving.html)and am thrilled with the fiber! She uses mill ends from Brown Sheep and her stuff is by far the least expensive I've found- $7.50 a pound.  I placed an order on Monday night and it got here this morning (Thursday). I would definitely recommend ordering from her. She even added 2oz of some lovely greyish stuff for free.


Here's 140 yds. I'm not sure what I would do with it and I think I may overdye it.  I'm not sure what color though- green would be too army, yellow might be a little poopy, perhaps blue or purple? Tell me what you think! Has anyone else used this for dying?

This is my first experience with alpaca, and I can't get enough of this gooey, luscious, dreamy fiber!  This was specifically intended for a project with a due date, so I was a bit hasty with the spinning- it came out really bulky.  This is about 2.3 oz of alpaca from Brooklyn General, and I spun it up on my Louet S17.

My roommate insisted that this picture was too boring, and she kidnapped it and dressed it up. I don't condone smoking, especially if you're a ball of yarn, and for future possible yarn-trading reference, there is no lighting up 'round the fiber!

Hey y'all- I know that wrist warmers are as ubiquitous on craftster as
clapotis are on the knit blogs, but I'm super psyched at how these
turned out! They're knit sideways in garter stitch and I used alpaca I
spun myself.  


 Materials: 100 yds bulky weight yarn. Lambs Pride bulky is great, and 1
skein will make two pairs.

10.5 needles, for an approx. gauge of 3.5 sts/in

Yarn needle

Pattern: The entire wrist warmer is worked in garter stitch. Work pattern
twice and when seaming, sew one "inside out"- the short row sections
will be the palm on each hand.

CO 22 sts, K 5 rows

Short row shaping: *K 10 sts, yf, sl1, yb, move slipped stitch back to
left hand needle, turn work around and with yarn in back, K to end of
row (only 10 sts)
K 2 rows*
Repeat ** two more times
K 2 rows

Thumb hole: K4, BO 4, K to end
K14 sts, CO 4 sts, K4

K 17 more rows, and leave a 2 ft. tail to seam up the edges.

There's nothing incredibly exciting about this scarf, except that I made it using yarn I spun on my wheel! More details (perhaps too many) on my blog, http://nomoresweaters.blogspot.com

The yarns this week demonstrate exactly why I wanted to spin in the first place! Everyone's look fantastic; I'm impressed with the variety of colors too- is this because we want winter to be over? Here's mine - it's 2-plied, merino, and is intended for the veronik averey sweater from the spring interweave knits. I only have about five more hanks to go. oi.

[Materials:]

I made about 30 of these for Christmas presents. They were so quick, really easy, and very cute:



fastest amigurumi I've done- each took about 40 minutes of crocheting and sewing them all up.

I like to start any amigurumi by making a slip knot, crocheting around
the loop, then pulling the end tight to close up the hole. Here's a great
tutorial that has a similar idea to mine:
http://crochetme.com/Dec_Jan_0405/reads_round.html


Materials:
20 yds worsted weight yarn- woolease has great colors
Yellow or orange scrap yarn for beak
H/8 hook
Plastic snap-on eyes (I found some at Michaels)
Yarn needle
6 inches of ribbon
Polyfill

Pattern:
This is done entirely in the round

BODY:
Ch 6 in a circle
Round 1: 2sc in each sc (12 sts)
Round 2: *sc, 2sc* around (18 sts)
Round 3:*sc 6, 2sc* around (21 sts)
Round 4-14: sc around

Snap on eyes between 11th and 12th rows leaving about
5 sts between them.

Round 15: *sc 6, decrease* around
Round 16: *sc, decrease* around

Stuff firmly with fiberfill. Don't worry if you end up crocheting
the stuffing into the last round- you can always carefully snip
it off.

Round 17: dec around. Cut with 6 inch tail, sew the top closed.

WINGS:
sc 5 in loop
sc 2 in each sc
work for four rounds
Leave a long tail, don't stuff, and sew to the row that is two
rows below the eyes.

Sew on beak, thread ribbon through the top, tie off, then pull
through so the knot is hidden. The more firmly you stuff your
bird friend, the less it will sag if you decide to hang it somewhere.

Don't hesitate to post or pm me with any questions! I love this
amigurumi nonsense...

Thanks for looking!

[Posh Pooches]

I think she may actually like this one! Check out the tail-wagging action:
 
 
I used Lambs Pride worsted weight and the pattern is from Posh Pooches, a decent pet gear book with 12 patterns ranging from an iffy dog scarf patterns (for real. would your dog ever wear a scarf unless it was sleeping?) to simple and easily altered sweaters. It came with dog-topped knitting needles, which I may have actually used for this very project (so knitting nerdy!)

Thanks for looking!

My first fiber friday! These skeins are hiding in the medicine cabinet in my house so my housemates don't find them- this fiber obsession is getting out of control:

the dark red is my favorite, it was so easy to spin and the color is really rich. it's a merino and some other basic wool blend, the yellow is merino, the tiny white is alpaca and wool 50/50 blend, and the teal and rose are cheap-o roving.

All the previous yarn is so fantastic! I especially love the dyed ones.