Saturday, February 9, 2013

Dyed, Spun, Plied and now Knitting.



It has been awhile since I posted on my hand-dyed, home spun yarn. I had shared some of my dyed roving with my friend who introduced me to spinning and she showed me what she had spun and plied and I was inspired! I immediately came home and started plying up what I had spun.

I should have taken pictures of the plying process, but I was so excited to begin, that I completely forgot! My knitting sister got here in time to remind me to take a picture before I pulled the blocked and weighted yarn off of the clothes line where it had spent the night drying.

I ended up with about 80 yards of plied yarn which was two small wound balls of "artisan" yarn which varies in weight from fingering to worsted.

I knew that I wanted to make a narrower, lace scarf that I could wear at work with a blouse. I toyed with the idea of a lace hat, but it would never be warm enough for me to wear in the winter and I wouldn't wear it in the spring. Besides, if you go to all the trouble of dying, spinning, plying and knitting up your own wool, then you should be wearing it all day! So, a scarf was the perfect wearable item.

I selected a free pattern from KnitPicks called Victorian Spring Scarf which seemed to be just the ticket. The pattern calls for a slightly thinner yarn with a larger needle, so I will need more than 80 yards, but I have plenty more wool roving to spin. I have gotten about two repeats of the lace done and am pleased with how it looks. Yum!

Happy knitting!

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