Wednesday, February 22, 2012

My Delight!!!!

 Here she is!! My Jenkins Delight turkish spindle!! She is very petite and so incredibly lovely. She is made of Desert Ironwood with a maple shaft and weighs 1.2 oz (35 grams). I actually got her last week but have been unable to put her down since she arrived. The first picture was taken the day she arrived.....and already I was spinning with her. The fiber pictured is a superwash BFL....the sample fiber that came with her. That spun up into a very lovely 17 wpi 2-ply yarn.....pictured below.

I had finished spinning that up the very next morning so my hubby took me to the local fiber shop where he purchased 4 ounces of a very lovely merino/tussah silk blend....which I'm now spinning. Nearly done with my first 1/2 ounce. The little Delight is supposed to hold 2 ounces of fiber. I'm having tons of fun testing that one out.  :,)

I'm so enamoured with my Delight that I decided to order another turkish spindle from Mr. Jenkins. After days of deliberation.....he has a nice selection of turkish spindles to choose from......and there are so many wood options as well..........I finally decided on a Jenkins Lark which will be made from Macassar Ebony (with a maple shaft) and weigh about 22 grams. Can't wait for it to arrive!!

I'm amazed at how much I enjoy spinning on my little turkish spindle. Love the fact that when you wind on you make a center pull ball. This is so easy to ply from! I pulled out my plying spindle and used that to ply up what was spun from the sample fiber. Worked beautifully!! And I was able to wind this from my spindle onto a niddy noddy. Another thing I really enjoy about the little Delight is how portable she is. I'm able to put her in a small bag which will fit right inside my purse. My square top whorl drop spindle (which I love) is longer making it not as easy to carry as my turkish spindle. That's okay though. I had purchased a small cross the body bag to carry both of my square top whorl spindles in....plus my nostepinne. I simply grab that when I want to use those spindles on the go. Gosh, I love spinning!! So many options and so incredibly portable.  :<)

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Flower Basket Shawlette

The pattern is by Evelyn Clark and distributed through Fiber Trends. The yarn used was a handspun, handdyed Shetland/soy silk blend......about a dk weight. Needle size: 8

Finished size: 54" from tip to tip.....25" deep

This was my very first triangular shawl and I absolutely enjoyed watching it come to life. I found a video on youtube demonstrating a garter stitch tab, so knew exactly what to expect there. Pretty sweet!! I still don't quite understand the correlation between number of stitches for the garter stitch tab and number of stitches in the lace repeat. Maybe someday.....


The shawlette was an easy knit and went fairly quickly. It took me less than a week to finish it. The lace pattern was easy to remember. The only thing that gave me any trouble was the bind-off. I didn't quite understand how it worked. So I looked up the bind-off and found it in one of my sock knitting books. The explanation for it was better and I was able to understand how it worked....and why.

Of course, Harley just had to make sure he was part of the whole process. The only thing he loves better than snuggling under a newly finished knit project, is rolling on a newly finished quilt.  :,)

The shawlette blocked out beautifully.....as can be seen in the photo. The embroidered thread portrait above is of Cisco......whose fiber was used to spin the yarn that was knit up into my shawlette. (I've been playing around with digitizing photos and stitching them out on my embroidery machine using only one color of thread.)

Had a beautiful day for photographing. Had a bit of a wind but not enough to hinder anything. The shawlette photographed beautifully and the color of the yarn came through great.  Sometimes I find it difficult to get a particular color to photograph true. Thankfully this did.  :,) 

Haven't decided on a next project yet. I do know that I want to knit another lace shawl.....or maybe a pair of lace socks. The lace scarf I started last month is coming along nicely. I've got a third of the second half of the scarf knit already. It's definitely not a quick knit that's for sure!! I have to confess I will be very happy when it is finally done. Even though a variety of lace patterns is used, this hasn't been the most exciting knit......for me anyway. Love the way the yarn is knitting up though. Very pretty!! The striping is subtle and seems to really add to the lace pattern instead of hiding it.....like I thought it would.  I think it will be a very pretty scarf when done.