Orange

I didn't mean to disappear this much, but all kinds of stuff happened, illness, end of winter tiredness, and whatnot. I had this finished weeks ago, even the pictures were taken and uploaded, but I just could not sit and concentrate enough to figure out a fun post. Then I just decided to put it out, fun or not.

The yarn was a second hand find, as usual not enough for a full sweater, but more than 50% wool, Patons brand, and the color was so me I couldn't leave it there.

The sweater idea came from the winter issue of Sandra magazine, the realization (because of my limited knowledge of german) is entirely mine.

Figuring out how to do the edge of the collar and the button band gave me the most headache, but at the end I think I did Ok with them.

Photos, as usual, shot by Christopher.

Second hand Rose

For a while I wrote "the queen of secon hand" posts, but not lately, maybe because I hardly buy things anymore (not only in second hand shops, but at all)...

But I just have to show this beauty to you. The fabric is 100% silk shiffon, and teh details are shown.

The color is not as much me (I would prefer if it would be more purplish, or lilac, instead of the dusty pink), and I still have to figure out what am I going to wear it...But I thought I have to take it home, even if I do nothing else with it, but hang it up, and looking at it.

Now, where can I get dusty pink underwear?

From fiber to FO

This started with a roving I bought in this shop almost two years ago, not long after I started spinning. I always loved it, but always though I need to increase my spinning skills... From time to time I took it out from my fiber stash, kept thinking about the possibilities, then put it back again. I knew I wanted to keep the colors and the color graduation toogether, but navajo plying on the spindle a bit tedious.

Until very recently, when with the arrival of Katica (my wheel), everything I need, the speed, the possibility of putting more than an ounce on the bobbing, navajo ply, all was within my reach. Also in the time, I figured out just what I wanted to knit with it.

The original fiber is a mix of coopworth wool and llama. To be honest, its not the softest stuff I ever handled (in that category nothing can beat my yak/silk mix), but it is ver sturdy. Which I needed, because I wanted to spin this THIN. As thin as I can, because the fiber was not all that much (about 80 gramms), and if I wanted a three ply out of it, that would be enough I needed it thin.

Then at the last moment realizing that the color changes are almost perfectly symmetric, and to make sure I had enough I decided doing two ply.Which, keeping the color sentence requred to reroll one of the bobbins and tweak the lengths a bit. But when I rolled it into a ball, I could see I got what I wanted.

From the 80 gramms I ended up with 530 meters of two plied yarn.

For the pattern... originally I was not as enchanted with the Citrone as most seemed to be. But when I was looking for something that would show off the yarn and the colors it turned out to be the perfect one.

Wanting to use up every bit of yarn, I did one extra repeats, but had to cast off with fewer ruffle rows.

Before blocking it did looked a bit like catbarf (specially of a cat who got drunk on kool aid).

But as we all know, a throughout blocking can do wonders.

The final shawl is lovely even if I say so myself...As I said, because of the fibers, it is not as soft, but I would rather call it crispy (instead of scratchy). And if my shetland shawl is anything to go by, it will soften up with use/time.