Another gradient shawlette and recent activities

And just for the fun of it, and because I try to include a couple photos in each post, here's the second gradient yarn that I carded, spun and knit into another shawlette. I'm happy with the design I created and I like the size and drape. There's one darker green line that I wish wasn't there, but spinning from a batt of Merino isn't a precise science and these things happen.

 

I'm not sure I mentioned this before, but I have an article in the latest PLY magazine. I arranged a fiber challenge for our guild two years ago and we had a blast, learning and stretching our skills. So I wrote an article describing our challenge and giving suggestions for designing your own challenge, whether for your guild or your fiber buddies or just for yourself. You should check it out. The entire issue is packed with good stuff.

I've also been helping a new weaver understand her loom and refreshing her warping and weaving skills. What fun it's been! And she has an art degree and understands when I talk color theory or we get going on European artists--I know who she's talking about and which painting she's referencing. It's been so lovely teaching her.

Spinzilla Report: I'm closing in on 3,000 yards with two days left to spin. Can I make 5,000 yards? Go Team Darn Yarn Harmony!

Phew! And a little tip on using gradient handspun yarn

I have been dealing with tomatoes for a month, along with the other vegetables and berries that came ripe. I have dried tomatoes, made tomato soup, made tomato bean soup, made chicken cacciatore, frozen tomatoes (12 quarts of the little buggers!), and canned some tomato salsa. There are still a few tomatoes on the vine and some green tomatoes in the refrigerator that will become Fried Green Tomatoes this weekend. And the red raspberries started about the same time. Then there was the cleanup of the green beans and other veggies that are done for the year. I finished most of the difficult work this morning, so I only need to keep an eye on the 6 cabbages and the lima beans and carrots. That seems like smooth sailing compared to the vegetable/fruit marathon I've been running this summer!

I've also been playing with spinning and using my own gradient carded batts and those very pretty gradient-dyed rovings that we're seeing everywhere. I started with the batts and wove a scarf (more on that in another post) just to see what would happen. It's gorgeous! Then I spun one of my gradient batts and designed a shawlette to see if my idea of blooming lilacs would work out (again, we'll cover that in another post). Yep, it almost worked but needs a little refinement in the spinning.

While cruising Ravelry to see what others had done with gradient yarns, I noticed that the knitted shawls had ever-decreasing (or ever-increasing, depending on which direction you're knitting) bands of color as the shawl grew outward. And I don't like that. Usually I like asymmetry but not in a shawl or shawlette, it just looks unbalanced to me. So I pulled out a 4 oz. roving that was a little too bright for my taste and spun it up to play with--if it was an abject failure it wouldn't matter because I don't personally care for the colors. This is the shawlette I designed for the yarn:

It's begun at the center and knitted outward and, as you can see, the bands of color are almost equal. How did I do it? Since it was a 4 oz. piece, I decided there was some sort of mathematical progression that related the length of color stripes to the length of the edge. No, I didn't do the math--I hate math!--I just guessed at it. That's why it was an experiment! Anyway, splitting the 4 oz. roving lengthways left me with two 2-oz. pieces. I split one of them again, giving me one 2-oz piece and two 1-oz. pieces.

I spun each separately, washed them and thwacked them to knock some sense into the singles yarn and make it behave, then I started knitting. I used the two 1-oz skeins first, then the 2-oz skein last. Since the color stripes were longer in the 2-oz skein it compensated quite well and the bands of color are almost equal. You could probably play with this a bit more--I wonder how it would work with a 6 oz. or 8 oz. strip of roving?--but it's not going to be me that plays with it.

If anyone decides to play with this idea, please let me know what you discover. It would be a fascinating exploration, and a good excuse to go buy some gradient-dyed roving.

Some new handspun yarns this week

I've finished up the Christmas gifts here at Chez Feisty. How are your projects going? Think you'll be finished in time to wrap your handmade gifts and put them under the tree? And I have photos but can't show them just yet because the recipients read this blog on Facebook.

However, I also managed to get some yarn spun this week in between visits to the garage, the hair stylist, the guild gathering--I had something going every day last week so the weekend came as a welcome respite. Before I decided to close the Etsy shop, I was working on a line of Tiffany-inspired braids. As I designed each one, I made two for sale and one for me to spin. If the color combination was ugly, neither the braid nor the yarn was going in the shop. Iris made the cut. The braids are listed but the yarn hadn't been washed and labeled before the closing sale. Here it is, although I'm not sure yet what it will become (suggestions welcome!):





















I had also been working on a series of gradient batts for the shop. One of my friends has a weak spot for anything purple, as do I myself, and I came up with a teal-blue-purple-berry transition and threw in a handful of white silk noils for interest. I spun up a fat singles for him as a gift, and just finished a fine singles for myself.

I got 392 yards out of 1.8 ounces of fiber and intend it for a Moebius with an undulating stitch pattern. I'm excited to see how it turns out, so am taking it along on my Christmas travels. Moebius knitting is so relaxing and mindless for travel.

And as if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, the weather here is warming up and the contractor called Tuesday night to say that he would be here bright and early this morning. This old house still needs some work to make it energy efficient, or as energy efficient as a 101-year old house can be, and so the basement windows are being replaced by double-pane windows. No glass block down there, I like to open the windows in the summer so the breezes can blow through and help cool it down in the evenings. The window cleaners also called last night to say they'd be stopping this afternoon, so I've already taken down the plastic pine boughs along the fence so they can access the windows. So today is my day to stick near home, wrap presents and bake Grandmas Cranberry Bread.

Stay warm, enjoy the holidays and I'll see you all in the New Year!