Music to my ears. erm, I mean eyes.

I just read a wonderful post on a blog @ St. Seraphina Knits

"I need 2,000 yds for the shawl I want to make. I am making this yarn one strand at a time on a tiny drop spindle....
But some of us like the process as much as the result. We don't count the hours other than to count them as hours well-spent making something beautiful with our hands.

...I have no idea how many hours it took! When I work with fiber I feel like I am outside of time.

Those of us who love to spin don't count the hours. We count the pleasure, and we count it as a very high pleasure indeed!

....We modern people spend far too much time counting the time. If you spin, don't spin in a hurry. If you're thinking about learning to spin, I'd encourage you to do so, and discover what it means to live a few hours each day outside of time."

So true, so true.
I <3 my spinning wheel. In the few short months I have been using it, I've really had many pleasurable, relaxing hours lost in the "outside of time".

coffee

coffee
Originally uploaded by Lis_

coffee on the beach... :-)

WIPs

Here are two more things that I've been working on:





These are some handspun fingerless mitts that I have been working on. I spun and dyed the yarn myself, though the colourway was a bit of an accident. The pattern is based on the Monkey sock patter from Knitty. More details when they are done ;-)

My other main WIP is the Sage Remedy Top aka the Purple People Eater in a bamboo/cotton yarn. I love the colour, and love these 2 colours together even more.

FO: Handspun Feather and Fan Shawl

Pattern: Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl
Web Link: here
My Rav Link: here
Yarn: My own handspun and Lion Brand Nature's Choice organic cotton in pink and natural
Needles: 6mm

I love how this turned out. The colours all go together so well, and it is soo soft and cuddly. I have left it unblocked, so it's thick and squishy. (albeit a little curly at the edges :P)
I wasn't sure about the fringe, but decided to go with it, as the shawl turned out a little smaller than I would have liked. The fringe suits it, I think!



Something has happened to our Autumn weather, it has decided to still travel along masquerading as Summer. Caitlyn wouldn't model it for more than a second, and threw it on the ground declaring it was much too hot and itchy :-)
Good thing I have appreciation of my projects around here LOL.

Shawl is done!

handspunshawl8
Originally uploaded by Lis_

Finally finished! It took almost a month, but I have my first 'real' item from my handspun.
I love it - it's so soft and snuggly and (hellishly on this disgustingly hot autumn day) warm.
Will post more details later.

Frank the frog

Last Friday Caitlyn spent half the day in hospital having a small operation.
She was not a happy camper for awhile, and Grandma gave me some money to buy her something - so she'd have something to look forward to when it was over.

This is what she said she wanted lol.
Frank and Fifi the frogs. I must admit, I think I will be passing Fifi onto Grandma to knit ;-)








Lachie has claimed it for the moment. Gotta be a part of everything!
Rav link

more handspun...

3plyhandspun3
Originally uploaded by Lis_

my first 3 ply yarn.
80% merino/20% silk
approx 100g/75m.
heavy worsted weight.

:-)

Third handspun + WIP

*warning, photo heavy lol*

My third handspun yarn was the same fibre as the first/second lot, which I dyed with food colouring again.



It turned out a lot better than I expected it to. I spun and plied it with a commercial yarn, into about a DK/8ply weight.




I matched it with some organic cotton to make the feather and fan shawl.
It's a very enjoyable, relaxing project.
After all the excitement and seeing everyone at Easter, on Sunday afternoon while everyone was still down at the beach, Lachie had a 2 hour nap at my sister's place while we watched Bruce Almighty and I knitted.





That photo is from last week sometime, I haven't taken another updated one yet.

Pattern: Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl
Web Link: here
My Rav Link: here
Yarn: handspun and Lion Brand Nature's Choice organic cotton
Needles: 6mm

Handspun love + first project

I have no idea how many times I have sat down to do this and been distracted by something (or a child :P)
I have become fairly obsessed with the spinning wheel, and creating my own yarn. There is a fair amount of cheap thrills involved in knitting something that was made with fibre that you dyed, spun and then created something with.

First up is my very first project made with my second ever handspun. I am way too proud of something that is so ugly, but, meh. :-)

Here is the fibre, after I dyed it with food colouring:



After spinning:



Pattern: my own improvised design.
My Rav Link: here
Yarn: Approx 35g of DK/sport weight single ply yarn
Needles: 4mm (I think?)





As usual, more photos on my flickr.

First Handspun

firsthandspun
Originally uploaded by Lis_

I finally got the spinning wheel up and running. This is my very first hand spun yarn!
It's not all that even, and there are a few lumpy bits lol, but hey, at least it actually looks like yarn.

FO: Revontuli/Northern Lights Shawl

I'm all done!



Pattern: Revontuli -huivi/Northern Lights
Web Link: here
My Rav Link: here
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2
Needles: 5mm



More photos on my Rav page, or in Flickr
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially after all the problems I had with the yarn. Great pattern~!

Here's the top that Grandma just finished making for Caitlyn. It's very cute!







Pattern: Tropical Lily
My Rav Link: here
Web Link: here
Thanks Tikki!

Yes I'm a slack blogger...

I have actually been knitting in my absence though :-)



I have been working on this shawl for a few weeks, on and off. I think I am almost near the end, I only have one repeat of the chart left to do... but each row seems to take forever. I never thought I would enjoy purling 100s of stitches back but I like not having to count the purl row ;-)



Pattern: Revontuli -huivi/Northern Lights
Web Link: here
My Rav Link: here
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2
Needles: 5mm

I found this pattern a bit hard to get my head around at first, probably because the author is from a non-english speaking background, I think. Not her fault anyway :-)
After a few repeats I didn’t really have to look at the chart anymore, so this shawl has happened rather quickly! It’s a lot of fun watching the colours play out, and I’m finding it pretty addictive.

I am seriously not happy with this yarn though. I just wound it into a ball to check for joins/knots and found one knot, and then another join where GREEN was joined with PURPLE.
Then I had to somehow work out where exactly I should cut and rejoin it.

After knitting with the 2 part balls that I have rewound, I have completed the purple section. I have noticed that the purple - instead of gradually fading to the next colour, (like the other colours have) - is plied with a light blue, creating a tweed effect that is completely different to the rest of the yarn. It appears that there is no dark blue at all, just purple that is plied to light blue, which then fades back to green.

I am pretty bummed at how the colour sequence had to turn out (no choice after removing all the knots and dodgy joins).
I’m sure I’ll be more happy with it after it’s done and blocked.

still not sure about this...

lachiebeach
Originally uploaded by Lis_

Birthday

Birthday
Originally uploaded by Lis_