I’ve Been Busy

I have started a project with my first handspun yarn. It is not the finest, but it is the first, and it is sort of cool looking, too. I am making a ‘Handspun Scarf’ by Monica Gomi (Two Left Needles). I feel a need to knit up some yarn I have spun.


I have one Grown Up Sock complete, and cast on the second with not a problem. I have completed the cuff and am now on the leg. Very exciting stuff, this knitting of socks. (I have heard it is the crack of the knitting world.)


I plied the ‘hot tamale’ wool/silk roving with some orange merino last week, which resulted in this. There is about 3 oz, maybe 4, and some of it is very nice. Parts of it were spun ‘early in my career’ and are more inconsistent. It surely looks pretty in the morning sun. If I was to name my yarns, I might call this on 'Flame On'. Of course, now I am reading about ‘balancing’ the plying and spinning twist. Hmmm….maybe too late for this stuff.


I finished this yarn yesterday. It is an alpaca/silk blend, plied with wool top. I bought the wool top as waste from Brown Sheep Co. I carded it to loosen it up, then spun the single. I plied this with a high twist. No telling what it will look like knitted up!


I started carding some of the cleaned alpaca last night, some little parts that were dry, just to make sure it worked, and I hadn’t felted my investment. I am learning as I go on this, as much as I want to research all I can, knowing all there is to know before starting. I have chosen to jump in and get the feet wet, armed with some knowledge, convinced I will learn more as I practice.

So far, so good, I guess. I mean it’s like just now learning about high twist/low twist and matching it up between the singles and the plying. I suppose I could have waited until I ‘knew’ everything, but then I probably would never have started. Most of what I have learned about gardening, I learned as I went. I will keep reading and learning and practicing and listening.

Next up…dyeing!