Teaser
A few shots from this weekend of April's upcoming pattern...
Worked in Linda's spectacular 50% camel/50% silk Westminster yarn. It has beads...
Spun up colourways: Pink Lemonade
Pink Lemonade samples
Some more samples from Wool House, this time Pink Lemonade on Texel. I did a bunch of different samples this time around (colors are best in the above photo).
First up, a single, spun and finished more or less the same way I spun up the Parakeet Corriedale.
For a not-very-soft wool, this fiber spun up into a really lovely single. The colors stay nice and bright, and the crunch of Texel makes it a very easy spin. It's also got a lovely halo that I think will be great when it's knit up.
Next up was a standard 2-ply: also with some lovely fuzziness. I'm reserving judgement on how much I like it until I knit up the swatch, but there are some solid colored sections along with the marl.
Next up were the 3-ply samples - both a traditional version (left side, top and bottom) and a chain plied version (right side, top and bottom). The traditional 3-ply ended up with some similar fuzziness, while the chain ply was a much smoother finished yarn. I think this largely reflects the fact that when I chain ply, I tend to smooth the plied yarn before it goes on the bobbin; this may or may not happen with the regular 3-ply.
Hopefully you can see the difference in the color mixing between the two: the 3-ply has some sections where all the plies are the same color, but more often there's a mix. The chain ply has much less mixing, and will therefore knit up with clearly defined stripes.
Finally, I got fancy and did a cabled yarn. Cabling (in reference to spinning) is when you take 2 or more plied yarns (of however many plies you want) and ply them together again. The singles are spun one direction, then the singles are plied together in the opposite direction with a bit of extra twist. Finally, the plied yarns are plied together again, with the wheel spinning in the same direction as it was when the singles were spun.
This yarn is a 4-ply, with two 2-plied yarns plied together (I feel like I'm writing "plied" an awful lot here...). I seem to have issues with photographing cabled yarns - the way the colors mix and combine is really interesting, but tough to capture. Particularly in this colorway, for whatever reason!
So that's what one colorway looks like when spun up in different ways. It was a really fun experiment, and I'm looking forward to the next batch of sampling I get to do. Hopefully I won't wait until next years Wool Week to try it again!
If it's April, it must be hooking time
Not that kind of hooking, gutter mind. This kind of hooking:
Once again, I am participating in the spring Potholder Swap run on Ravelry. This time around, I've challenged myself by using slightly thinner yarn (sportweight vs. last year's DK weight) and a pattern that uses some new techniques.
The pattern I'm using is the Crochet Flower Pot Stand by Lindervrouw, using the English translation of the original Dutch pattern from rubyredeclectic.blogspot.com. I made a few changes to stay within the swap designated size, so instead of working 10 rounds, I'm only doing 9, and they're coming out at about 7.5 in across.
I've gotten 4 out of the 6 sides done - since the potholders need to be double thickness, I'm making both sides the same. I actually have done five sides, but somehow I managed to make the second purple/green version with 16 petals instead of 15. No idea how that happened, but there you go. Thankfully I've got enough yarn to make another one, so I'll keep the mutant one for myself.
Next up on my list of WIPs to finish off this week: ummm...maybe the grosgrain ribbon backing for my Unravel sweater so I can actually wear the damn thing would be a good plan?
Once again, I am participating in the spring Potholder Swap run on Ravelry. This time around, I've challenged myself by using slightly thinner yarn (sportweight vs. last year's DK weight) and a pattern that uses some new techniques.
The pattern I'm using is the Crochet Flower Pot Stand by Lindervrouw, using the English translation of the original Dutch pattern from rubyredeclectic.blogspot.com. I made a few changes to stay within the swap designated size, so instead of working 10 rounds, I'm only doing 9, and they're coming out at about 7.5 in across.
I've gotten 4 out of the 6 sides done - since the potholders need to be double thickness, I'm making both sides the same. I actually have done five sides, but somehow I managed to make the second purple/green version with 16 petals instead of 15. No idea how that happened, but there you go. Thankfully I've got enough yarn to make another one, so I'll keep the mutant one for myself.
Next up on my list of WIPs to finish off this week: ummm...maybe the grosgrain ribbon backing for my Unravel sweater so I can actually wear the damn thing would be a good plan?
About me
I'm originally from Boston, Himself is from Vermont, we've generated two small, blonde Texans, and we're living in the UK for three going to be more like six years. It's always fun.
I've been knitting off and on (but really, really on starting about 1998) since I was seven years old - my grandmother taught me using some perfectly heinous pink, white and blue Red Heart Supersaver acrylic. I started this blog in 2007, when my youngest daughter was 4 months old. A month later, I got a spinning wheel, and it's been all fiber and yarn since then.
A few months ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to start selling my own handdyed fiber at Porpoise Fur. So now there's dye and piles of undyed fiber in addition to the yarn and spinning stuff that was already here. It's a good thing my husband is very understanding!
I do hope you leave a comment if anything I say strikes your fancy. Or pisses you off. Or anything else, just comment! If you'd rather email me, I can be reached at porpoiseknits AT gmail DOT com. Enjoy your visit, and happy wooly pursuits.
I've been knitting off and on (but really, really on starting about 1998) since I was seven years old - my grandmother taught me using some perfectly heinous pink, white and blue Red Heart Supersaver acrylic. I started this blog in 2007, when my youngest daughter was 4 months old. A month later, I got a spinning wheel, and it's been all fiber and yarn since then.
A few months ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to start selling my own handdyed fiber at Porpoise Fur. So now there's dye and piles of undyed fiber in addition to the yarn and spinning stuff that was already here. It's a good thing my husband is very understanding!
I do hope you leave a comment if anything I say strikes your fancy. Or pisses you off. Or anything else, just comment! If you'd rather email me, I can be reached at porpoiseknits AT gmail DOT com. Enjoy your visit, and happy wooly pursuits.
Happy Porpoise Spin-Along
This is an example of how Twitter is either the greatest community builder of all time or a path to a lovely tropical hot spot paved with good intentions...spinner be warned!
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jacqui Tweeted about her new book, and about how excited she was to spin in all sorts of new and exciting ways. Her Tweet reminded me about my excitement when I got the same book, and how I'd meant to spin my way through the entire thing. One Tweet led to another, which led to emails back and forth, which has now led to:
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jacqui Tweeted about her new book, and about how excited she was to spin in all sorts of new and exciting ways. Her Tweet reminded me about my excitement when I got the same book, and how I'd meant to spin my way through the entire thing. One Tweet led to another, which led to emails back and forth, which has now led to:
Button courtesy of J's brilliant children
The Happy Porpoise SAL, in which we work our way through the brilliant Sarah Anderson's "The Spinner's Book of Yarn Design", thereby expanding our spinning skills, and broadening our handspun horizons.
Everyone is welcome to join us in this quest: we're running it out of my Ravelry group, the Porpoise Pod for ease of having everyone in one place, so grab whatever is in your stash and come play with us!
We'll be going chapter by chapter, and starting the frenzy tomorrow (April Fool's Day seems like a reasonable beginning date, no?) with Chapter 2: Singles for plying. One of us will start a thread tomorrow morning in the group, and we'll be off and running! I, for one, will be running to catch up, because I'm pretty sure Jacqui hasn't been able to restrain herself...
Hope to have you all join us in our spinning adventure!