Chitchat and the occasional in-depth analysis about fiber, knitting, spinning, crochet, cooking, feminism, self-image, and a modicum of personal blathering.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Here comes the sun (flower)

I finished the Sunflower shawl early last week but didn't get it blocked until last weekend. And have not had a chance to blog about it until now!

I actually carried it with me to work on when we went to Cincinnati for our anniversary. Spent many happy hours visiting with old and new friends and knitting. I had a bit of a scare at the end, as the yarn almost ran out and when I was finishing the petals, I had to decrease on both the knit and purl side to avoid running out.

This is how close that was.
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That is not a lot of yarn, y'all! I went so far as to contact the woman who dyed the fiber at Corgi Hill Farm to see if she could do me up some more. But thankfully, I made it.
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The yarn is handspun BFL/Silk from Corgi Hill Farm fiber. The pattern is Tuscan Sunflower, available on Ravelry. I spun the fiber to a laceweight two ply, spinning each braid separately to preserve the gradient. I used size 7 needles, interchangeable knitpicks variety, almost having a heart attack when one of the cables broke and I lost about 40 stitches. I can't even find where that happened, now, I managed to get them all back. But it was a lace knitter's worst nightmare, especially one who never uses lifelines.
The Ravelry page is here.

I'll just post a bunch of pictures now and let them speak for themselves. It's hands down the prettiest thing I've ever knitted.
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The drape and shine of the yarn is incredible, Anna Marie makes the most wonderful fibers to spin and I put the yarn quality down to her. You can't spin bad fiber into beautiful yarn.

Speaking of spinning, I have done a couple of yarns the last week or so. This one is
the lovely Handspun by Stefania corriedale I got at MDSW. It's spun woolen long draw and much better than my first attempt at that technique.

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It's over 300 yards and will be hats for my older daughter and her boyfriend.

The second is also an MDSW thing, the batts I got from Spinner's Hill. Nearly 400 yards, a sport weight or so. I am thinking a garter-based shawl with a lacy edging, one just came out in Knitty this week that might suit.
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And that's been my last few weeks in crafting!

2 comments:

madge said...

that shawl is amazing!!!

Val said...

Awesome! That turned out wonderfully well...