April 30, 2006
Whazzup?
Not too much. Diamond Fantasy #1 is done. Apparently, since I found this such a soothing knit, I'm going to make another one. I have a couple of balls of Kidsilk Haze in the stash with beads to match that will make a scarf sized DF. It will be airplane knitting for the long journey to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I can hardly wait to meet up with cyber friends, old and new.
This DF was knit with handspun superfine merino in the Beach Stone colourway, fibre from our favourite source, Lisa Souza (see Good Shopping in the side bar). The pattern is from Sivia Harding.
In the picture below we have more of Lisa's superfine merino in the Wild Things colourway, and a pair of Fiber Trends felted clogs for my soon-to-be DIL. My family all love these slippers. For a preview of how the Wild Things will look all spun up, go see Kerry's beautiful handspun.
The Perendale is all spun up and now I have endless plying on the go. Endless. Plying. I have treadled so much that my arse hurts. I had at least 36 ounces to ply, and, as usual, I'm about half done. The picture below shows the difference between how the colours spun up with my combed fibre (on the left) and the processed fibre (on the right). The processing blended the colours and I made no attempt to do that when I combed.
Some day I am going to try a tensioned lazy kate. For the time being, I just use my fingers to (try to) control the tension. I think I may have overplyed some of this. The hand combed bobbins have been spun since last summer, so the twist has set. I'm hoping that washing the skeins will revive the twist in the singles and help to balance the two ply a bit. I sure hope that's not faulty logic. At least it's good rationalization.
Next up is a wee creamy-beige Cormo fleect that I got from Treenway Silks when their fleeces came in last February. It only weighs 1 kg. / 2.2 lbs. It's a greasy little devil that takes a few washings to get clean. Even then, some of the tips are still dirty. Here is the washed fleece ...
... being turned into this ...
Doesn't that just make you want to say "ahhhh"?
yes it does.... love cormo!
I need to go over to yarn harlot and say, "melanie said arse! melanie said arse!"
See you in 5 days!
Posted by: CarolineF on May 1, 2006 07:02 AMI love your pictures! Those little pillows of puff are adorable - like little pets. The perendale is gorgeous - be sure to bring some with you! And you know I love your shawl - enough to copy it. My Wild Things roving was much darker than yours - it'll be fun to compare our yarns. Love the serendipity of the dye pots!
Posted by: Kerry on May 1, 2006 07:18 AMi wanna pet them :-)
melanie, how did you ply the yarn for your dfs?
Aaaah!
I really love tensioned lazy kates. In fact, another one is my top purchase plan for sheep and wool (I don't like the configuration of the ones I have.)
The shawl is lovely. The perendale looks gorgeous. And that cormo...oh. my. goodness. I wish I could just dive right in.
Posted by: Jessica on May 1, 2006 11:36 AMThe cormo looks delicious. Hoping you'll bring a wee sample of the Perendale to MD as well as your lovely shawl.
Posted by: Vicki on May 1, 2006 11:39 AMAhhhh... :-)
Everything (as usual, Mel!) is simply beautiful. You need to bring a little hank of that perendale to Maryland so that we can all pet it!
Posted by: Sam on May 1, 2006 01:29 PMI see Sam beat me to it, but yes, Ahhhh.... How DO you have the patience to deal with all of the washing and combing and spinning and plying let alone the knitting? My spinning wheel is collecting dust along with the "sock yarn" on it.
See you soon!
Ahhhhhh! My arse normally goes numb - is the pain before or after that? ;)
Have fun for me and take my hugs to everybody.
Posted by: Angela on May 2, 2006 01:56 PMThe stuff's all gorgeous Mel! Can't wait to hear all about your trip.
Posted by: Lara on May 2, 2006 07:15 PMI love your works, the beautiful shawl and the wonderful red boots. So well done. You did exceptional job and should be praised for having such a skill.