Amazing what $6 in fiber will get you!

On my last trip to the Brown Sheep factory, I got almost a pound of 85% wool, 15% mohair roving to spin up.  My latest post was to show the fingering weight I spun up with most of the fiber.  Last night I spun up the rest of the pink.  The fiber was $6.50 per pound, so I guess I spent about $6, and here's what I turned my investment into:

 
The chunky turned out to be 116 yards of a chunky yarn.  Just right, I think, for a nice warm hat, maybe with cables..... hmmmm

I am searching Ravelry for "rose" or "pink" in shawl names, to pick out a pattern for the fingering weight.  So far the finalists are: Rose Fragrance (calls for laceweight), In the Pink (calls for fingering), Campanula in Pink (calls for DK) and Rose Garden Shawl (calls for DK).  Obviously there will be some swatching happening before a final decision is made.  The construction of In the Pink fascinates me, so it is the heavy favorite right now.

Spinning -- it's not just for health clubs anymore!

I have been bitten by the spinning bug in the last couple of weeks.  I obtained some roving (wool/mohair blend) from Brown Sheep factory, put on my lace flyer, and went to town.  About 8 or 9 ounces of fiber turned into about 640 yards of laceweight or light fingering yarn.  I can't wait to decide on a shawl for this fiber.  I still have about 5 or 6 ounces of this left, so I will probably spin that to a worsted weight for a cowl.

(When snow is all you have for an outdoors backdrop for your picture, that's what you use.  It snowed a foot in Cheyenne Sunday and Monday, and a foot at our house in Fairplay Colorado during the same time period.)

I also picked up at Cowgirl Yarns, my favorite Wyoming LYS, 3 ounces of llama fiber, locally produced in Laramie.  I sat down and spun it Thursday evening, then plied it Monday night while watching "24 - Live Another Day."  (Great show, BTW.  It was a stroke of genius to let it sit for a few years.)  Anyway, here's what became of the 3 ounces of fiber.  It took a while to spin, because I had to stop and remove vegetable matter quite often.

 I tried to spin and ply this a little more loosely than I tend to normally, because it is such a fuzzy fiber that I don't want to lose that property.

I haven't yet decided what it wants to be.  Since there are only 200 yards of it in fingering weight, it probably will become some sort of scarf or cowl.

  
Stay tuned for my next spinning adventure -- superwash yarn to spin to fingering weight for socks.  Wish me luck!

Do I ever stop knitting lace?

and the answer is NO!  I found this pattern, Greek Revival Shawl, and fell in love with it.  I knitted it in Louisa Harding Jasmine yarn, a cotton/bamboo/silk yarn with flecks of silver thread.  I was torn in the choice of fiber, since cotton doesn't block easily to show off the pattern, but I wanted something with some weight to it for cool evenings when a lightweight wool shawl is not enough.  I had 3 yards left from the 535 yards I started with.  I was not able to finish the complete shawl, but there was enough to the body to go around the shoulders, so I felt justified in finishing it off.  I think it might be too heavy if I had made it as deep as the pattern called for.  On the pattern model, it goes down to about the backs of her knees, and that was a bit too much for me in the cotton.  I enjoyed the knit enough that I might do it again in a lighter yarn and complete the entire pattern.

Trying new yarns

One of the best things about being a knitter is the opportunity to branch out to new techniques and new fibers.  I was gifted a kit when I went on the tour of Brown Sheep factory in Mitchell NE on MLK day.  I had no idea who would get this set after I finished it (and I still don't) but I really enjoyed knitting with the Lana Boucle yarn.  It is 100% wool, and has a spring you don't often find in boucles, which tend to just get caught on other bumps in the boucle, and I don't find it enjoyable to knit with them.  The kit included 5 skeins (180 yards each) and I have enough of the 3 different colors to knit a hat to go along with the scarf and gauntlets.  I am looking for a hat pattern with the same ruffly brim as the other pieces, and will add the hat to the collection for a complete set.

So thank you Linda for the kit, and I will find the right person to enjoy the finished products.

Sad day, happy day

Last week my favorite LYS closed their doors after 8 years in business.  Rhonda and Diane at Prairie Wind Fiber and Beads are moving on to other stages of their lives.  That is the sad part.  The happy part is that all their yarn was 40% off, needles and notions were 30% off, and beads and beading accessories were 25% off.  So I spent more than I should have, but came away with lots of good stuff.  I got enough bookmarks and cross charms to make bookmarks for all the women in my Bible study group.  I also got 3 hanks of neutral shade Ella Rae laceweight yarn to try some yarn-painting, along with 4 colors of jacquard dye to use for the project; 3 pairs of fixed circular needles; and 8 balls of a really soft pima cotton/alpaca blend yarn for some special project.  All in all, a pretty good haul.

Goodbye Rhonda and Diane.  Good luck with all that goes on with you in the future.

I love field trips!

Last year on MLK Day, I went on a field trip to Brown Sheep Yarn in Mitchell Nebraska.  This year Lori at Cowgirl Yarns put together another annual trip (Thanks Lori!)  I took my neighbor Karissa, and off we went to Mitchell.  We went on the tour and then on to my favorite part:  the factory store!  Karissa was a great help as I went box-diving for roving to spin.  Here's what I came up with:

The blue/lavender fiber in the back row is superwash; all the rest are the wool/mohair blend of Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride.  I love all these colors, so spinning with them will be a joy.  Over 5 pounds of fiber for under $31.  WooHoo!

Karissa also helped me bag some roving to use to thrum slippers for all the daughters and their significant others for Christmas next year.  Then we went to the factory store to select Lamb's Pride bulky weight yarn for those slippers. Yellow, green, orange, blue, brown and grey tweed are the six colors for the six kids.  I also picked up some cream-colored wool to have some more fun with dyeing.  Dye pot, here I come!

The yarns in the front two piles (blue handpainted and grey/mulberry/heathered yarns) are Brown Sheep's new product, Lana Boucle.  I usually don't care for boucle yarns, mostly because the yarn catches on itself and doesn't have any life.  There's nothing that Brown Sheep can do about the stitches catching, that's the nature of the beast, but they have solved the problem of lifelessness by spinning a 100% wool boucle that is springy and fun to knit with.  I think the handpainted is calling out for a cowl for me (something around my neck, since these are my colors and enhance my eye color).  I am not sure who is destined to receive the ruffled scarf and wristers in the kit. The wristers are already knit in an afternoon, and the scarf is underway.  And thank you Linda for the kit!

I always feel like such a successful shopper when I go to the factory store.  $6.20/pound for roving, $12.50/pound for the yarn, except the handpainted yarns, which are $25/pound.  But this entire haul, plus a little I didn't show, came out to just over $100.  I promised John I would try to spend less than I did last year .... and DID! (by $2! But hey, a miss is as good as a mile!)

After the factory, Karissa and I went to lunch at a cute little bistro in Scottsbluff.  Then we fought the wind driving home.  But, all in all, a very satisfactory day!

More boot accessories

Since boot toppers and boot cuffs seem to be the rage this year (or so I'm told by some of those who follow trends) I decided to make some more toppers.  I did the brioche cuffs a week or so ago, so I chose a more commonly-seen pattern: cables and ribs.  I found the pattern on Ravelry and dug right in.  It took me a couple of evenings, and was a very simple pattern.  Cables are such a fun way to add depth to a fabric.  My only problem with cables is that I forget to count rows between cable rows, and then have to stop and backtrack.  Hopefully Hilary will like these.