yarn – Page 2 – Sheetar.com

Spinning

Tour de Fleece 2013

By Sheetar 26 July 2013 24 July 2013 0

Tour de Fleece is over for another year. What is Tour de Fleece? Well, it’s held during the Tour de France, that big bicycling race, except replace bikes with spinning wheels and fiber, and you have a nerdy, wool filled 21 days (plus two days rest) of spinning your feet off. I posted my progress shots on Instagram, but I figured I’d post the final shot of my finished work here. My final tally is 3081 yards of finished yarn, but times three for the three plies, and I have 9,243 yards spun in total. Not too shabby! I could’ve probably spun more, but I was pretty busy and seemed to have stressed the heck out of my hands like I never have before. My favorite is the Chasing Rainbows top mostly for the way it spun so easily and evenly. REALLY love the colors on the Taylored Fibers yarn. So, now that I have all this handspun, I need to actually start using it for projects!

All have been chain plied, links to go my Ravelry stash page.

Top row, L to R:
1. Chasing Rainbows Merino/Bombyx top – 332 yards, 2 oz
2. Taylored Fibers 80/20 Merino/Silk – 542 yards, 4 oz
3. Dunn Spunn Alpaca/Wool/Bamboo – 628 yards, 9.3 oz

Bottom row, L to R:
1. Twisted Fiber Art Cloudy 60/40 Merino/Bamboo – 547 yards, 4 oz
2. Mountain Colors 100% Targhee – 506 yards, 4 oz
3. Wild Hare Fiber Studio Superwash Wool – 526 yards, 4oz

Ceramics, Scarves

All Things Crafty

By Sheetar 15 February 2012 15 February 2012 0

Spinning and spinning and knitting. Spinning up clay on the wheel, spinning up yarn on a different wheel, and as always, knitting.

Not too long ago, I started going to Cara’s open studio Wednesdays at the Cobb Studio. She’s a wonderful teacher and it’s been an incredible amount of fun getting my hands dirty. I got a quick lesson in throwing clay on a wheel one day when the studio was a little emptier than usual, and I’ve slowly been working on getting better. Just wanted to share a few pieces I’ve made that I’m super happy with so far. The first is a little tea cup. It’s a bit heavy and thick on the bottom, but I absolutely love how the handle came out. The second is a mug with a leaf applied to the side so that you can slip your hand inside and keep your hand warm while you sip on your tea. Unfortunately, I neglected to account for the shrinkage of the clay when it dries, so it came out a little smaller than I expected, but I can still get my fingers inside the little leaf pocket.

For fiber spinning, I’ve spent the last week or so not knitting. I think I may have over-knit recently and my elbow is telling me to take a break. I’ve got two bobbins spun and plied so far, and am working on some 100% silk which is challenging, but AMAZING at the same time. Below, on the left is some superwash merino fiber from Twisted Fiber Art in the colorway, “Maple” and on the right is more superwash merino fiber from PigeonRoof Studios in, “Illuminated Moss.”

Then I have another spun-to-knit project because this month has been all about handspun.

Fiber is from Fiber Optic yarns and is 80% Merino and 20% silk dyed into one big long gradient. The colorway is Gold-Copper-Cinnamon-Espresso.

All spun up! 480 yards, fingering weight, and chain plied to keep the color progression.

Knit into Saroyan! (Ravelry Project Link) The pattern is pretty easy, and the only issue is that it wants to curl up. I thought I had blocked it pretty well, but the garter border at the top still wants to curl under. Other than that, I’m really happy with how this came out and how even the not-so-even handspun knitted up. Can’t wait to wear it out and show it off!

11 in 2011, Socks

Warm Up Sox

By Sheetar 25 May 2011 23 May 2011 1

It sounds naughty right? Well the pattern comes from a book called The Joy of Sox, and yes, it’s a clever play on another book about something entirely different. The pattern was originally knit starting at the toe and finishing at the cuff. Now, I can knit socks toe-up, but I loathe every second of it. I learned to knit socks from the cuff down (top-down), and it’s more familiar and comfortable for me. So, I pretty much took the stitch pattern and worked it into a top-down sock. Yeah, the cable is upside down, but it really doesn’t matter to me, and the basic idea of the sock is still preserved (or at least I think so anyway!). Really love the eye searing green from the colorway called, “Night Vision,” and the yarn was fun to knit with, making a squishy pair of socks. So sad that it’s summer and I won’t really be wearing them till the fall again, but when the cold weather comes, I’m sure they’ll be ready for my feet. This is the third finished item in my 11 in 2011 goal for knitting this year.

11 in 2011, Socks

Gin & Tonic

By Sheetar 5 April 2011 16 January 2022 2

This is the second finished item of my 11 in 2011. Yeah I might be a little behind, but I can still make it, right?

The yarn is Sheepy Feet from Sheepy Time Knits, colorway, “Daisy Chain.” The color pooled up making these awesome spirals of green around the socks and I love how that happened – looks like a twist of lime, going with the gin and tonic theme. The sock pattern, Gin & Tonic, worked up really quickly and I’m happy with how they came out. No real modifications to the pattern, just knit it as-is. Pretty short post, but socks are socks, and it’s more about the eye candy here than any fancy write-up!