Monday, May 17, 2010

One Thing Leads To....

A while ago, I posted about some yarns I have been organizing for a pair of gloves or mittens. I dyed the angora yarn mentioned a spring green, thinking it would go nicely with the coral and brown yarns. The color reminded me of something else...

wooly daisy wool

a bump of dyed wool from Steph, waiting to be spun. How nicely this would bring the other colors together, I thought, and so I spun up a skein:

wooly daisy oranges

This is three singles on (l to r) a Spinner's Lair, a Spindlewood and a Golding.

I bought the wool above with another bump, of blues, which seemed like a nice complement to the other yarns too:

wooly daisy blue

So I spun up a small amount:

3 blue spindles

This is the ( in reverse order r to l)Greensleeves, another Golding and a Cascade. I plied both sets on the Hound Design Dervish (my current favorite spindle, but I am fickle):

wooly daisy2

All the yarns are 3 ply, they seem to go nicely together:

mitt yarns

The colors reminded me of something I had seen:

composed mitts

The pattern is Composed Mitts (Rav link).

Seems like a theme here lately, last post: no brainer design. This post: no brainer design. All you need is time, effort and a an eensy remainder of memory, and all things come to those who wait...and do the work. That part is important. Nothing happens if I just sit around and daydream, or talk about it. I have to make an effort.

Things may not just make themselves, but sometimes they neatly present themselves for the making.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sometimes It's Just Obvious

When one has a spindle with a Celtic Knot design:
golding celtic spindle

The spindle bag for it will be a (doh) Celtic Knot design:

celtic spindle bag

And the band for the bag will be a (doh) Celtic Knot design:

celtic spindle bag band

Sometimes "design" is easy. It does not carry the weight of a capital *D*, it just happens.

Details: Celtic Ring Spindle, cherry wood with silver inset, .89 ounces in weight, from Golding; spindle bag woven on the Cricket loom, warp is crochet cotton (size 10) sett at 12 EPI, pile weft is handspun wool and wool mohair yarns; band is woven on a Schacht inkle loom using size 10 crochet cotton for background warp, and Tahki Cotton Classic for pattern warps. Design adapted from a once-ubiquitous-but-now-not-there online four strand Celtic braid pattern, into a six strand Celtic braid pattern.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Eventually It Comes Together

Several months ago, Abby sent me a gift of fiber to spin. It happened to arrive on my birthday, so I considered it my birthday present :). I spun the fiber almost immediately into a three-ply, ready to knit some gloves or mitts:

red yarn

I even started to knit them, but alas, got involved in other things and they languished. Interest was revived when Abby gave me another batt this Spring:

abby batt

I divided this batt into three sections, and spun them on separate spindles:
3 singles

The top spindle is a Maggie (also a gift from friend Connie), the middle is a Desko and the bottom is an Ethan Jakob from Greensleeves.

I wound the three strands into a plying ball, leaving very little on the Desko, and a bit more on the Ethan Jakob:

3 spindles

I've started to ply on a Tabachek that I bought as one of my first spindles at Olds last June:

plying Tabachek

Now I plan to rip back the false start of last year's cuff, and restart with at least these two colors. I may add a third yarn, a 3-ply white angora I've had spun up for several years: the fiber was also a gift, this time from Helen of Bay Colony Farm.

Percolate. Some projects take a while to percolate to the top. Sometimes it takes a catalyst to re-start the process after a lull. But eventually....all things come together, with a little help from my friends :).