November is not my favorite month. Enough so that I was considering not blogging at all in November. But I decided to do the opposite and challenge myself – Participate in NaBloPoMo and blog every day for the month of November.
So stay tuned tomorrow for Day 1.
This should prove interesting… or not. 
It remains to be seen.
Happy Halloween!
There has been a major shift here at saffronknits. But, before I get to that, I want to you show the last yarn I finished.
I had 4 ounces of ‘Cotton Candy’ mini batts from Spincerely Yours
I chain-plied this yarn, being very conscious about the amount of twist I was putting into it and I am very pleased with the results. I’d say this is a pretty woolen yarn as I spun this with a supported long draw. I call it ‘Pink Parasol’. (Inspired by line in The Sound of Music).
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But back to that ‘major shift’. After finishing that last yarn, my spinning mojo went on vacation but an obsession with knitting has taken it’s place. Want proof?
I bought that Dream in Color Smooshy – Visual Purple and made the ‘Simple Yet Effective Shawl‘.
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I saw someone knitting an Ulmus shawl (designed by Through The Loops) at my LYS and went home and started one of my own. I’m using Claudia Handpainted Yarn fingering in the colorway ‘Carousel’ and Koigu Premium Merino in Black, both from my stash. I’m so glad to finally be using this yarn.
My issues with reading patterns reared it ugly head and I misread the chart so my Ulmus is more of a stockinette version. I really like it!
I’ve had to rip out about 16 rows to fix a mistake, but that hasn’t really slowed me down. I still love knitting this shawl.
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And finally, a shawl made out of my own handspun. The very first time I’m knitting with my own handspun. I’m so in love with knitting this, I almost can’t stand it!
Once again, it’s the Simple Yet Effective Shawl. It’s completely in stockinette and I completely love it! (The picture shows the shawl upside down – The navy is the top of the shawl.)
I’m going to knit all of color blocks then add black at the bottom. I’m still deciding if I want the garter stitch edging to be in color or in black.
Ok … enough blogging … gotta get back to my knitting.
‘CMY Party’ – 8 oz Corriedale from The Painted Tiger:
The spun singles:
The YARN!
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I call it ‘It’s My Party’
What fun, right? I love all the colors in this yarn! No predrafting – I just spun the top from end to end then chain-plied it.
Started on 09/20/09 and finished on 09/28/09. It is approx 423.33 yards. There is a knot in this skein because I wanted to maintain the progression of the colors as they were in the top. It has way too much twist in most it, but I still love it. I can’t wait to see how the colors stripe as it is knit!
But what should I make???
I bought some ‘Cotton Candy’ mini batts from Spincerely Yours.
I got a total of 4 ounces and the singles are almost done. I am trying a variation of the long draw which I think could be called a form of supported long draw.
Twist seems to be the bain of my spinning existence. Either I have too much or not enough. I’m still working to find that balance. I plan to chain plying this.
I mentioned practicing long draw in my previous post. Below are the videos that helped me the most.
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This one is from Spindlicity:
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This one is good example if you have trouble pulling your arm back a good ways:
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Another helpful video:
English Woollen Longdraw Spinning (YouTube)
It really is like magic.