Month: July 2010

- saffronknits 5 Comments

tour de fleece 2010 – finis!

I finished my yarn on the last day of the tour! :) (It was very much a coincidence ’cause I didn’t know when the end of tour was – I just wanted to spin!)

I ended up with a very nice squishy yarn. Non-superwash merino. I am a little disappointed that the blue dye bled in the finishing wash, coloring the natural end of the of the yarn, but I’ll get over it. I suppose it was inevitable but still a little bit of a bummer.

This is the first yarn that I kinda designed. I think that’s cool. I call it ‘Gradient Blues’. There’s one thing that I know for sure – it’s gonna be used for something for me.

I think the photos speak for themselves so enjoy! :)

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is there such a thing as too many hobbies?

I’ve given up thinking I can focus mostly on my knitting & spinning as my main hobbies. Other ones keep sidetracking me.

On a recent trip to the bookstore, I made an unexpected purchase:

Sewing? I haven’t sat down at a sewing machine in over 10-15 years when I made a couple of pillows. I took sewing in home ec but never liked sewing – but I never looked beyond making clothes. I have no desire to make clothes. But bags or at least the lining for any knitting bags I make do interest me. There are some knitted or crocheted bag patterns I’ve not made yet because I was avoiding that whole sewing thing …

So, why the interest now? I have no idea. But I really like this book. It’s not a book of patterns -it a book of projects, ideas that can lead to your own bag design.

Wanna know how motivated I am? I went to a fabric (quilt) store. Very intimidating. I know nothing about buying fabric, but I think I found some nice fabric for a couple of bag projects in the book.

See? (why deviate from favorite colors ;) )

I’ll keep you updated on my progress – success or not!

- saffronknits 3 Comments

tour de fleece 2010 – week one

For this year’s Tour de Fleece, I’m pretty much goin’ it alone – my own personal challenge. Tourdefleece.com is not active for this year’s challenge and I decided not to do the Ravelry version after not enjoying it last year… and I’m havin’ fun.

On July 3, I bought some Schacht hand cards – 72 ppi…

I did dye some merino fiber, but after impatiently waiting for it to dry, I decided to pull some fiber that I’d previously dyed and card it with some natural color merino – total of 4 oz. I really enjoyed blending the fiber with my new fiber tools and made my first rolags. :)

This was a good opportunity to work on my long draw.

I heard a tip in episode 4 of the SpinDoctor podcast that helped tremendously – so I’m working to draw back at the same speed the twist enters the fiber. This is very challenging. One moment it’s working then the next moment I lose it. I know fiber preparation has a lot to do with the success of this technique so I figure that better I get at the fiber prep, the better I’ll get at the long draw.


I’m planning on chain-plying once I finish the singles. I can’t wait to see how it looks! :D

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from fiber to finis!

I finished my fingerless mittens!

I call them ‘Elemental Mitts’ (aka Ele-Mitts). (A woman from my knitting group came up with that and said I could use it! :) )

They are mine, all mine and I love them! My first completed project using my own handspun! :D

I still have some yarn left to make something matchy-matchy so stay tuned for that. I’m still deciding what to make.

ttfn!