Twisp of Fate

I finished the top-down raglan for Rick yesterday.  Here it is washed and drying on the wooly board:

As mentioned in a previous post, this was knit from my own handspun – a 3-ply yarn where each ply was a different natural color from a multi-colored Coopworth cross fleece.  I used Karen Alfke’s “Unpattern for the top-down sweater“, an old favorite.

This is just a simple thing, but I enjoyed knitting it, it went quickly, I didn’t run out of yarn (in fact I have a fair amount left – always so important), and Rick really likes it.  He will be wearing it tomorrow.  I think this one will be around for a long time and meet the classic description:  just like an old favorite sweater.

I have also wound off two 6-yard warps, enough for 4 more shawls, and got one of them on the loom last night:

These are handpainted yarns from New Zealand, and this colorway is called “Arctic.”  She must have been thinking of the aurora borealis?

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Actually, the first one up is a “project just completed.”  Last year, at a spinning workshop retreat on Orcas Island with Judith MacKenzie McCuin, we dyed some sock blanks.  Judith had sent some of her 2-ply Rambouillet yarn to a mill to be knitted up into tubular yardage, the tubes being about 6″ wide.  Each of us got about a 12″ piece, which were dyed in a “painterly” fashion – all were done in the same basic colors, though.  Once dried, these are then pulled out (un-knitted) into 2 balls of yarn, one for each sock.

I wanted to get these done for 3 reasons: (1) to actually finish a project I started a year ago, (2) to try out a pattern from Cat Bordhi’s wonderful new sock book, and (3) to show them to Judith next weekend when I see her at the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat in Tacoma.  And, I hope to get a signed copy of Judith’s new spinning book!

So, Simple Coriolis slipper socks:

I have also started a top-down raglan sweater for Rick, using some yarn I spun about 4 years ago.  He wanted a basic outdoor sweater to replace an old favorite bought in the Outer Hebrides many years ago.  I am using Karen Alfke’s Unpattern for the Top-Down Sweater, a big favorite of mine since it lets you design any size sweater from any weight of yarn, with neckline variations.

The wool is from the very first fleece I ever bought, back in 2004.  It was a multicolored Coopworth cross, which I divided into 4 color groups which were then sent out to a mill to be processed into roving for spinning (I also kept the coarser wool, which was all dark brown, separate).  I had about equal amounts of the 2 lightest shades and the darkest shade in the finer wool, so the spun singles from those were made into a 3-ply yarn, which is what I am using for the sweater.  It is only medium-soft, which will be fine for an outerwear sweater, but boy is it ever “springy”.  Lots of elasticity.

Lady's fleece, sorted before making into roving

I am also getting to work on weaving some shawls.  These are similar to the ones I made last fall, of which only one remains out on consignment, so it is time to start building up some stock.  The warp is a handpainted mohair bouclé from New Zealand, which I get wholesale from Fiber Trends in Wenatchee.  I don’t think all the colors are shown there, by the way, but at any rate they are changing dyers so it will all be a little different pretty soon.  I am using various colors for the weft, mostly alpaca, which gives the shawls wonderful drape.  For the blue-green-black warp shown, I am weaving 2 shawls – the first one has been completed with a black weft, and the current one is using a blue alpaca and a kid mohair/silk yarn held together.

boucle shawl underway on the loom

On the non-fiberarts front, today I designed an ad for Rick to place in the Methow Valley News annual Building Guide, which will be out in March:

The website will be “up” Real Soon Now, at which time it will be announced here on the blog, with a permanent link on the sidebar.  That’s been another project underway, for the last month or so!

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