Bulky Mini Poncho

And another update today :)

This is what I made from my first handcarded batts using my new drum carder...

 100% fine Merino wool, dyed in a rainbow gradient by myself

then carded, first each color separately, then blended to get a striped batt

These are the batts, which were spun into thick slubby singles

The bobbins before plying

And the yarrrrrrn, 2ply colors a bit random... 

And this is what I knit out of it: a cute mini poncho with strings for size adjustment.

Below are two pictures of me showing to different ways to wear it:

The wonderful texture of the knitted fabric

Soo this was a quite fast project compared to others, as it was spun very thick (100g, 216 m) and then knit with 10 mm knitting needles. I cast on 66 stitches and knit in the round until I almost ran out of yarn. Then I added one row of purl, on row of *k4, yo, k2tog* and another row of purl stitches. Afterwards I bound off loosely. Through the holes created in the yarn over round, I put a string with two wooden beads. Finished!

Hope you like it and it inspires you. Knitting bulky is so much fun!

Winter Swap/KAL Chantimanou Group

Ohh I didn't write a blog post about this yet? So it is about time.

This project is a fiber swap including a KAL (knit along) in the chantimanou group on ravelry.
Every participant sends 100 grams of dyed fibers to another spinner and keeps 100 grams of the same colorway for herself. In this way you receive 100 grams of "random" surprise fibers that shall be spun and then used together in the same project with the fibers that were kept for yourself. Everyone will have a different combination, and we will all knit the same shawl in the end.

The shawl knitting pattern is Wave After Wave which has been designed by group member Cordula just for this swap (it is available to other knitters too, of course).

So here are some pictures of the progress so far...

These are my 2x 100g fiber (100% Polwarth). I dyed it myself and called the colorway "Ubatuba", which is a coastal town in Brazil where my boyfriend lives.

My cat Leila was quite sad that one of the two braids had to leave us...

... but not for long, because soon afterwards we received a huuuuuge box that looked very promising.

The contents of the box! 100g Merino/Soja dyed by The Spinning Cat accompanied with wonderful gifts - chocolate, tea and a candle :)

This is the combination of the gifted fibers together with my own. I like their contrast, and how they still go very well with each other. 

Now some pictures of the spinning process... :)

I have finished spinning and plying the yarn, and the balls are waiting to be knit into the shawl.

I am planning to cast on during my 12hour flight to Brazil, which is on Sunday.

Fiber Club October 2014

This month I received my first fiber club from Sidi's.

The name of the colorway is "Autumn Leaves" and this describes it perfectly:

50% Polwarth / 50% Tussah Silk

(dyed by the wonderful Swiss handdyer Sidi)

She dyed the roving in a "palindromic" sequence, from golden yellow over orange to red and back.

So I have spun the roving from one end to the other into a fine single to then ply both ends of the single together out of a ball. I thought this should keep the gradient a bit (because of the symmetrical dyeing), but not too much, to give a little bit of the "barber-pole" effect.

plying ball: one piece of single comes from outside, one from inside the cake

Here's how it turned out - 106 grams, 373 meters (Yippie! Fingering weight was my goal!)
Super soft and shiny thanks to the 50% of silk.

I'm already so curious what the colors of the next month will be!

Color Experiment: Grey Corriedale Fiber

What happens if I dye grey wool? To answer this question I took some grey corriedale roving and dyed it in different shades of blue, while I randomly tossed in some dye solutions that were left over ... totally random!
Afterwards I separated the roving in stripes of different thickness and spun it randomly... plied from a ball... and here it is! I really love how the grey "background" makes these many colors smooth and match together.

The colorway is now called "Deep waters".... what shall I make from this yarn?

• Aran weight, 2ply, 8 wpi
• 108 g, 182 meters
• drive ratio singles: 6.5:1, plied: 8.5:1
• information about the fiber: Corriedale 25-28 mic, 80-120 mm staple.... the roving had a very rough touch and I expected to get a rather scratchy itchy yarn - after plying and soaking I was absolutely surprised to get a squishy soft yarn!