Tour the fleece

Earlier this year I was thinking about doing a Tour de Fleece, but (mostly) do to recent events (and non events) I kind of cancelled it in my mind...
But then it turns that these days I find myself at the spinning wheel more than doing any knitting or crochet...
Here is a proof...

This much...

to finish and show you...
Exam period is over and I am coming back...

Shop Udated !!!

Finally, after such a long time there are a lot of new stuff in the shops.
Lots of new types of wool including corriedales,coopworths, both less soft than the usual merino or BFL, but a lot easier to spin, so they are especially good for beginners.

New stuff in the yarn shelves as well. Lots of sock yarn, lace yarn, and there are thicker weights are there too (DK, even aran), and this time there are a couple of colorways in larger quantities, enough for a west, or even a sweater.
You can reach the shops from the right column, just click on the wool or yarn pic!

Go, have your pick!

Summerwood

As with most things, this sweater has a story as well. I was planning to knit a driftwood sweater forever now, a couple of months ago I even got some yarn for it...only to figure out that it is much thinner than the pattern calls for. Because it uses a technique I never knitted before I didn't want to be a daredevil with recalculating eight at the first time.

Since I just fell in love with the new Barka yarn, Fészek, that has about the prescribed weight, the solution was given.

The shoulder uses the top down, continious set-in sleeve technique.

I ordered he buttons from e-bay, I rather like the idea having buttons decorated with a tree on a sweater knitted from yarn made of recycled cotton.

Alltoogether I used about 600 gramms of yarn, three balls of the grey, two of the blue and one of the sand colored one.

Alltoogether I used about 600 gramms of yarn, three balls of the grey, two of the blue and one of the sand colored one.

I planned a loose, soft summery sweater, omething to throw over my white clothing, or wear with jeans.

All cut up- harvest cardigan

All right, I'll show it then

This is my first "real" fair isle cardigan, with the steeked technique.
Cutting it up really can gets on one's nerves, but on one hand if someone done all this work on a piece it is not too probable that she (or he) would want to frog it, on the other hand it is really so much easier to knit these things on the right side.

Pattern is the Harvest cardigan, yarn is Lana Grossa tweed sock yarn, the contrast colors were all kinds of odds and ends I picked up in second hand shops.

The knitting was actually done more than a year ago, I cut the steeks at the little birthday party some of my knitting friends organized for me.Only to let is lay low in the heap of VIPs with one arm sewed in...

As I said there were photos shot at the big operation, but when two computer crashed and died on me at the same time lots of things messed up, and I still hunting down these ones.

I have to thank Veronika, Maria, Kata and Kinga for holding my hand and Christopher for shooting the modelled pictures.
Since a few of you asked, in an upcoming post I will show pictures of the wrong sides of things I knitted with this technique and answer questions that I am usually asked about fair isle. So if you have one don't hold back!

weekly spinning: blue falkland

This was my "going out" spinning for a while, I was spinning this, whenever I went out to somewhere where I had to, or could spin.

I dyed the wool at the end of last summer, when someone asked me fo baby blue fiber. In the fall at an obligatory school event meeting with a friend who was doing felting with kids, I took a bit off its end.

 Took this with me when I went to knitting meeting, the wool-day, even a folk artist meeting.

The fact that this was a secondary activity for me, not getting my full attention shows, it is more uneven and sustic than usual. On the other hand, as I say if I want perfectly even yarn I go into a yarnstore and buy one. No need to spend time with that. If I want one of a kind, totally unique, personal yarn, I spin it.

The pictures are somewhat more greyish than reality, the sudden winte in march doesn't favour photograpy.

About 90 gramms of handdyed falkland wool
spun with a drop spindle
520 meters two ply

Blue poppies

I've knitted this hat for several reasons.

To check teh pattern just one more time.

To show, it looks good not only from the original yarn.

To show, that one should not be worried if the fair isle technique pulls in somewhat.

To figure out if it works with other color combination as well.
And not the least, because this close to spring I thought a blue flowered hat might just be the thing :-)
Yarn: Barka Esti Mese
Pattern Poppies
Photo: Christopher Laurent Deli