More Handspun

Okay, things are cooperating a bit better today, so I can share the other photos that I had intended to show you yesterday.



A couple of weeks ago I went down to do some fiber dying with my friend Lynne. I was dying some worsted weight wool for a co-worker that I had just taught to knit. She is preparing to get started on her first real project, a shawl, and I had her pick out some colours. Becuase I have never worked with the particular colours before I wanted to test them first, and see how they blended together. I took some left over scraps of white merino and got this:



I absolutely love it! I think I wil actually use the colour combination again at some point. I used Cushings acid dyes that were purchased at The Elegant Ewe, in Dark brown, Taupe, and Terra Cotta.



Since it was just left over bits of roving it was already in fairly thin strips. Once I fluffed it all up, and pre-drafted a bit it was very thin. I think it spun up my finest singles to date.



The end result was this:







Just over 300 yards of fingering weight 3-ply. I absolutely love it, and really want to knit it up into something special. Any suggestions?





One last thing before I go, when I was taking photos of the yarn yesterday it was rather warm out. The snow melting off of the roof was creating a steady stream of water that ran over the window in the den. It made me think of one of my blogging friends. So, Melanie, if you are reading, this photo is dedicated to you!

Fresh off the Bobbins

As of yesterday I hadn't photographed any of my recent spinning, but in the spirit of breaking in the new Brileyknits I got out the camera this morning.




Most of my Spinning these days has been devoted to the "midnight" merino/mohair I bought at SPA.




This is a very loosely combed , fluffy roving, and although it is not the easiest to spin, I love the way the fiber feels in my hands. It's moving very slowly, but I am really enjoying it.


For those of you who haven't seen it before, here is another shot of the singles. I think the finished yarn is going to have a wonderful mohair halo. I have a vaugue plan for the yarn, but am still deciding on a specific pattern.








So far I have about 450 yards of 2 play lace weight. I haven't set the twist yet, as I want to have it all spun up first, but I think it will probably fluff up into a DK weight. I'm hoping to get another 500 yards out of whats left. I think I have enough.

I had more to share today, but the photos won't seem to upload right now, so I guess I will try again later.

Recent Knitting

Since I haven't blogged on Yahoo for a couple weeks, and I've only posted earlier FO's on this site, I figured I should show you some of what I have been working on. Unfortunately, my largest WIP has to remain a secret for the time being, but I have been working on more than one project, so here's what I can share...


I have finally finished my Tomten Jacket. I started this as a KAL with my brother Gerry at the end of October. It has gone in and out of sleep mode a few times due to holiday knitting, and occasional loss of interest (aka frustration with silly errors). Tuesday I decided to just get it finished. It's still waiting for a zipper, but the knitting and seaming is all done.

I have also nearly completed my hand-spun BSJ. I need to sew up the top, and add the buttons, and possibly a collar, but here's how it's looking.







I've been doing quite a bit of spinning as well, but haven't taken pictures yet. I will try to get to that soon.

A brileyknits Make-Over.

For quite some time I have been thinking about relocating my knitting blog from Yahoo 360 to another space but was undecided about how/when/where. I knew I wasn't happy with Yahoo's blogging features, but was hesitant to move, thinking transferring all of the content would be way too annoying, and losing it would be too sad.

A couple of weeks ago I became totally annoyed with Yahoo and just stopped blogging. I decided my next post there would be my Farewell post. Well, after thinking it over for a bit I decided that brileyknits is getting a bit cold- with new patterns not popping up as frequently as they did in the beginning. So, I will now put all of my blogging right here!

For those of you who come for my patterns, I have added an index for easy access (Look to the left).

For those of you who didn't know I knit more than bath mitts and bookmarks I will share some of my 2008 FO's:

This cabled scarf was a congratulatory gift for my friend Fouad when he received his Master's Engineering license in January.












The spiraling Coriolis socks were the first pair of adult sized socks I made from Cat Bordhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters. If you enjoy knitting socks and don't have this book- get it!


I call this the "Accidental Baby Sweater" My friend Cindy was taking a trip to Peru and wanted hand made garments to give as gifts for the local children. I thought I had a week to get it to her (I mixed up my dates and actually had five weeks) so I just cast on and started knitting, with no pattern or actual measurements to go on. I was hoping for a large-ish toddler sized sweater, but it really ended up being about a 12 month size. I used Peaches and Creme yarn that I had hand-painted myself.












A few weeks ago I finished this Hemlock ring blanket. It was made as a prayer shawl for a friend of a friend who had just lost her husband. I used Irish Aran from the Irish Ewe, and was very pleased with the results.















So, there you have it. A bit more than dishcloths. I will be posting more soon about my WIPs, and other fibery pursuits.