How The West Was Spun

New Pattern Release: Orbspinner Scarf

I've got a new pattern to share with y'all today. This is currently being hosted as a KAL with the Ennea group, but it's a nice, quick and easy scarf pattern that can be knit with just one skein of fingering weight commercial yarn as well.

This is the Orbspinner Scarf. The original was knit with the soft and sparkly handspun I spun up this spring in the gray alpaca/carbonized bamboo/sparkle blend. 

The scarf features a leafy Estonian-patterend border with self-scalloping edges, and then a diamond pattern for the center panel of the body.  It's knit by casting on at one end, knitting the first border, then knitting the entire center panel, and then casting on for the second border, and finally grafting the border onto the body (which means you get to graft in stockinette and not have to worry about working Kitchener in the lace pattern!).

It's a nice generous size, so you can wear it as a typical scarf, but you can also wear it as a little mini-stole around your shoulders as well.

The lace is not particularly difficult.  It'd be a nice way to have a beginning lace knitter ease into reading slightly more complex charts, and it would make a fairly quick project for an experienced lace knitter.  (And it'd make a great holiday gift in case you want to start filling up the gift-giving bin early this year!).

I also need to mention a HUGE thank-you/shout-out to Manise for knitting up the sample for me.  She did an awesome job with it and got it finished up while I was slogging thru a few other deadline knits so this could be released on time!!

All for now....

New Ennea Fiber Club

There's a brand-new fiber club available through the Ennea site.

You might remember the charcoal gray alpaca/carbonized bamboo/glitz roving I spun up a while back?

It's now available for the July Ennea fiber club.  You get 4 oz of this beautifully prepared roving to spin up, plus information on how to spin the fiber if you'd also like to participate in the knit-along that we'll also be hosting for a pretty lace scarf/shawlette featuring Estonian lace patterns (suitable for lace knitters with some basic knowledge of chart reading, but not a difficult project at all!).  The club subscription also gets you a copy of the pattern plus your shipping.  (The pattern will also be available individually if you aren't a spinner, if you'd like to KAL with us too.)

This would be a great project if you are participating in the Tour de Fleece currently, and then plan on working on a knitting project for the Ravellenic Games - it gives you both projects in one package!

All for now......

Pattern Release: Berry Patch Socks

A new pattern for a pair of handspun socks - the Berry Patch Socks are an easy summery lace sock pattern.  These are knit from the toe-up, although the lace pattern is straight-forward enough if you are a cuff-down fanatic, they'd be easy enough to convert to that technique. 

I knit mine from a 3-ply of heavy fingering-weight handspun.  The original roving was a SW merino in the colorway "Sugared Beets" from FatCatKnits, but these will work with any fingering-weight yarn.  They have a gusset for better fit, and a square heel flap.  The lace pattern is a simple 4-row repeat.

I was able to squeak a pair out of only about 315 yards by shortening the leg length an inch from the pattern as written.  These are a quick, easy summer project, and would work well with any sock yarn - a solid, semi-solid or even a fairly wild hand-paint, and of course, would be great in handspun!

A VERY big thank-you to my test knitters for getting their socks finished up so quickly!  All for now....

Ennea Collective - Spring 2012

I know some of you have already found it, and I'm a little slow in getting this posted since I was in Dallas when Lori got the newest edition of the Ennea Collective online, but it's now available for the Spring 2012 edition.

There are a couple of great new sock patterns in, and a whole whack of articles including a couple of product/book reviews.

Enjoy! 

All for now.....

Spinning Friday: Alpaca/carbonized/bamboo/sparkle roving

I finished spinning and plying up a skein of gorgeous dark charcoal gray heavy laceweight this past week.

Fiber:  60/35/5 blended roving of superfine alpaca, carbonized bamboo and sparkle.  I had this custom blended and it'll be the featured fiber for the July Ennea spinning club offering (with pattern - which I'll spill the beans on when it's ready for release).
Specs: A 2-ply yarn, 470 yards/4 oz (heavy laceweight/light fingering).

I was super pleased with this blend.  Stone Hedge Mill generally does a great job, but this was beautifully blended, almost a pin-drafted roving, and it spun without any work at all on my part other than choosing how thick I wanted the singles.  I love the drape the bamboo adds and there is just the faintest hint of gray/black sparkle in it (not too flashy).

All for now....

More Ennea Patterns

A couple more new patterns that are in the Winter Ennea Collective magazine for y'all.

The first is a super simple lace scarf.  This takes very little yarn, and if you have a special skein of handspun or a commercial beaded yarn, you can zip thru this on large-ish needles and even get it knit in time for Xmas this weekend.

The Ponderosa Snowfall scarf:

I used the beaded yarn I spun up from a 4-oz braid of BFL earlier this year.

The Diamond Dust Tam is another quick knit. I used about 150 yards of a nice soft Aran/heavy-worsted weight merino for this one.  It's not a super floppy tam, but big enough if you have curls to be able to work with those.

And a shot of the interesting cabling on the crown, which is awfully fun to knit up.

All for now.....

Winter 2011, Ennea Collective

The newest Ennea Collective magazine is now available on line!

I have three patterns in this edition, but I'll be highlighting just one today (the others to follow tomorrow).

This is the Crevasse Shawl

It's a fairly simple crescent-shaped shawl featuring bands of a subtle handpaint and bands of lace inserts of a semisolid pewter gray.  The bulk of this shawl is just plain ol' stockinette, so it's a great travel project and would make a nice vacation knit.

You can, of course, knit it using commercial sock-weight yarns, but Ginny of FatCatKnits (who dyed the original roving) has put together a kit to spin it yourself.  She's offering it in a couple of different fiber bases, at a 10% discount for the fiber pack to spin it up in the original colors.  (You get to pick the fiber!).

We had a lot of fun photographing this one.  D and I took it with us when we went to Colorado a month or so ago for our little vacation, and found a pretty little aspen grove to photograph this (and my other projects) in in the late afternoon, when the light was great.

Always helpful to have a cute puppy as part of the modeling crew, although I probably coulda done without quite so much tongue.

All for now......

FO: Dragonflies Shawl

I finished up the Mystery Shawl from the Ennea fall edition, aka the Dragonflies Shawl.

PROJECT DETAILS:
Pattern:  The Mystery shawl as noted above at the link.  This is now available as a full-fledged pattern via Ennea Collective magazine from Lori.
Yarn:  My handspun from eons ago.  It's a 50/50 cashmere and silk blend in the Forest colorway from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks.  I originally purchased the roving at the Back of the Wasatch fiber festival - I think it was now 6 years ago?  At least 5.  The yarn was a 2-ply, 440 yards from 3.8 ounces.  I used about 400 yards for my version.
Needles:  Size 5 US circs.
Mods:  None.

Depending on the light, this colorway is either very dark and broody, or prettily subtly striped with the dark green/purple/golds you see directly above.  It is insanely warm for it's size (which I would consider a small shawl/shawlette, in an elongated crescent shape) due, I'm sure, to the cashmere component.

I don't think I'd recommend this for a very beginning lace knitter - there are a few rows of the border you need to pay close attention to with patterning, although not lace patterning, on both sides.  Otherwise, tho, it is not a super tough knit and definitely one you could knit in less than a month if  (unlike me... ahem...) you worked on it without putting it down for almost 2 weeks and getting distracted by other things.

No Spinning Friday tomorrow. D and I are taking a long weekend of R&R, but hopefully I'll be back with some spinning for next week for y'all.

All for now.....

WIP Wednesday: October 26, 2011

I finished up my Mystery Shawl, aka the Dragonflies Shawl this week, and I'll have more details on that for you tomorrow.

I haven't knit much on my Elemental Pullover, but I think that's next up on the for-me project rotation for a while.  So I'll see if I can get sleeve #1 finished on that, and then I'll get cast on for the body.

I'm in the midst of 53-1/2 (seems like it anyway) design projects right now.  I've started work on the 2 projects I'm designing for the Shakespeare in Lace club next year as I want to get those off to be test knit as soon as I can.  (I'm up for the first full shawl installment and the second smaller accessory one, but it's sort of a one-two punch in March/April when I know the calendar is already filling up, so I want to be sure they are finished.)  I've got several swatches I'm working on.... AND I'm still knitting things for the crafts fair in another few weeks.

It'll be slow-going with the pullover, I suspect, but hopefully I'll be keeping you entertained with a few other tidbits here and there.

All for now...

WIP Wednesday: Ennea Mystery Shawl

I'm finished up through the end of clue #2 for the Mystery Shawl from the fall Ennea Collective.

I sort of can't believe that I've been hanging onto this yarn in stash for eons. It is absolutely fantastic to work with and I love the colorway.  (Note to self:  Don't DO that.)

 

Final clue #3 is due out this week, which will be the border.  I hope to get some knitting time in in this over the weekend!

All for now.....