Knitting My Own

During the spinning workshop at the Estes Park Wool Market, it was said the way to spin better yarn was to knit with the yarn we spin.

Huh. Go figure.

Well, I have knitted some socks from the baby alpaca I processed, to some more or less success. They were wonderful to wear, and wear them I did. They did not prove to be very durable.

Life is all about lessons, don’t you know.

I have given my handspun away, asking others to let me know how it knitted up. Nothing like shifting the burden! And getting a useful opinion on which to base further judgment. Or maybe not so much.

I trust Ms. Casey’s wisdom. It has proven out in the past.

And Youngest mentioned (perhaps in passing, but perhaps not!) that she should like something made from the Shades of Crimson yarn I handspun/painted. So, after some diligent searching for some pattern of some thing I felt appropriate for the yarn, and the daughter, and the yardage, and my mood…

I found this Sunkist Cardi (by Kirstin Kapur, rav linky).

I am knitting it from this. I spun 12 oz of white BFL (blue faced Leicester wool) into about 540 yards of 2-ply, which I handpainted with 3 shades of Crimson Red, by sub-diluting the first and most concentrated solution.

A bit of the way in so far, and this much is known. The knitting with this yarn is good. Quite good, actually.

Good enough that:

#1, I might not give anymore of it away!
#2, I might relist some in our Etsy store, Atomic Sisters, because folks, this stuff is seriously nice to knit with.
#3, I am queueing up what is going to be my next handspun project to knit, and to spin.

Very motivating this has all been.
Very, indeed!