Fiber Fun!!

I have been able to play on my spinning wheel lately and here is the end results. :.) This first yarn is a Shetland/nylon blend.....just for socks. The Shetland is from my own sweet sheep, Sophie. I dyed the fiber prior to carding/blending. The colors were layered during the final run through the carder. I really like the way it turned out. Can't wait to knit it up into socks.

This fun yarn was spun from wool top from Louet. The colorway is Circus. I spun it using the fractal spinning techinque. This will eventually be made into socks for my youngest. She really loves the way the yarn turned out. I just hope the socks turn out as nice. This yarn was spun from hand-dyed Targhee top that I had purchased over a year ago. I was looking for something a bit different to play with. It is also spun using a deviation of the fractal spinning technique. Gave me some really soft looking yarn.....which will end up being knit into a pair of socks....some day.

This colorful yarn was spun from hand-dyed superwash wool that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I was looking for something fun to demonstrate the fractal spinning technique with.....and this worked perfectly. I even knitted up a small sample from the yarn I had spun while demonstrating the technique. Turned out quite nice. I'm thinking I will use this yarn to knit a pair of socks for my loving hubby.

I have always spun my colorful hand-dyed fibers using the fractal spinning technique.....or some deviation of it. Just never knew what it was called until recently. :.) I always thought I was doing something wrong since my yarn never striped when it was knitted up. Now I know better. :.)

May's block

Here is May's block....finished!! Yea!! I'm still a month behind, but hope to correct that real soon. This block of the month program ends in August. The new one starts up in September....which I will be signing up for. I would love to be able to put this quilt together in the fall. So there is still time. :.)

Finally started on the graduation quilt. It's going pretty good so far. At least with the actual piecing part anyway. Ran into a small glitch with the machine embroidery on the setting squares. Everything was going great until I looked at the pattern again and realized that the setting squares were set on point. I was embroidering them as if they were going to be set straight. Arggghhhhh!! Needless to say, my blocks weren't large enough for me to cut down to size on point and had to be re-done. The only good thing is that I didn't have very many of them done (only 7 out of 26). So into the "extra block" pile they went....and I started all over again. I now have 7 out of the 26 blocks embroidered and everything is looking good. I'm over half way done with the pieced blocks (there are 72 in all). With any luck I will have everything ready to be put into a top by this weekend.

Well, the quilting isn't the only thing I've had problems with. The knitting hasn't been any better. I have had to frog the last two socks that I have knitted up. One I was a few rows away from finishing when I decided to try it on (wanted to make sure I would have enough yarn) only to discover that it was too small. With the other sock (a different pattern) I was down to the heel when I tried it on. The fit was okay. The problem was that the lace pattern just didn't lay flat and was incredibly unattractive. Don't have a clue as to what I was doing wrong. So it was frogged as well. Wasn't going to attempt another sock pattern until my youngest pointed something out to me. Not every sock pattern will work for every knitter. She suggested I go back to the type of patterns that I had been knitting before joining the local sock club. So I did. I am now working on a sock from the book "More Sensational Socks" (I think that is the name of it). So far, so good. Of course I'm still working on the cuff. :.) With any luck the rest of it will go as smoothly and I will have gained a bit more confidence in my sock knitting skills.