11/30/08

Spinning Memories

The holiday and cold left me worn out. Not enough to keep me away from fondling fiber though!

Yesterday, I decided to reminisce on my few spinning ventures. Seems that I'd made some progress from the snarled hanks done when I first purchased the Wheel of Fortune. The best of it all was from my first spindle spun ever, in the autumnal colorway to the left and the more recent turquoise and brown hanks on the right spun on the wheel.







In the spirit of frugality, I've decided to knit up virtually everything that I've spun. Into anything. Anything at all. Coming up with just the right pattern would take me forever so I just grabbed some needles and cast on. With the snarled blue hanks, I am currently working on a mat of some sort. Perhaps it would be suitable for a small animal or maybe a footmat for a car in inclement weather. Since there is a bit of older brown coopworth spun, I've knit that in for striping.

The snarly green "english wool" hanks might make a nice felted bag. That's worth taking a few minutes to either find or create a pattern for. The other balls and hanks are too nice to rush and knit. I'll take a day or two to devise a plan. Maybe, just maybe, there'll be a garment in the making? Hoping.


On that little note pad holder, I would wind on miscellaneous bits of spun yarn from time to time. Even those bits are getting used. I saved a tiny ball of coopworth to make a felted bowl like in the One Skein book. I used a few strands of colorful handspun as an accent and to bind off. It reminds me of a bird's nest. Wish that I knew how to needle felt. I'd make a few robin's eggs to go with.











While on vacation for my birthday last year, I tried my hand at spindle spinning baby camel. Wasn't able to do very much. I just wound what I did around the little note pad.
Even though I had a mind to chuck it because it wasn't very much, I couldn't. It's soooo soft.

I got a pair of sized 3 needles and cast on eight stitches and just knit. Lightbulb. Made a yarn over. Ohhh. Now if there's enough, this'll become a bracelet! Yeah! I did some decreasing, tied the end into a knot and attached these cowrie shells to the end as an ornament. This might be nice with jeans and a t-shirt? If I were to do this again, and I may, I would begin with a little ruffle, then button hole. If the yarn were spun a bit thinner, perhaps a cable in the middle? We'll see.













1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There sure are a lot of memories there! Congratulations on taking the spun yarn in hand and just making anything.

I always get caught up in the pattern hunt too, which impedes progress and is about as fruitful as a snipe hunt ...