Happy Wheel-aversary!

Three years ago today, I brought my wheel home. Seems like I just got it!!! :)

What better way to celebrate than by spinning! :)

I have finished spinning the rainbow singles. I will let the twist settle a bit before I wash and finish the yarn.

I have now picked up the pink & black merino/tencel blend I started a while ago. (Although bobbin #1 is missing. Time for a bobbin hunt, I guess). But here’s the progress on bobbin #2.

Can’t wait to see how this looks plied!! :D

sunshine and rainbows

This summer, I went to St. Louis. I made a side trip to Loopy Ewe. During my time there, I decided to go on a ‘rainbow hunt’ and I found this fingering weight yarn by Studio June Yarn in ‘Sunshine and Rainbows’ colorway.

At the time, I bought two skeins.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a third. Whatever I make with this yarn, I want to make sure I have enough. And yes… I have a plan. ;)

One can never have too many rainbows.

working my way back

Hi. :) Yes, I’m still out here in the world. Is anybody out there?

It’s been a challenging year… during part of which, my favorite yarn store closed. I really only knit on one thing this for most of the summer – black rainbow shawl (the stripe study shawl) and I only finished it this past week.

These photos are pre-block. But I really like how it came out. Not really stripey, which I really like. This shawl is for me. Maybe one day I’ll make another one.

fiber friday: so cute

ok, so it’s fiber friday on Saturday. :)

I got my Moose Toes Sock Kit from Cabin Cove Mercantile. It’s so cute! Seven 50-yard mini-skeins and one black skein of 200 yards. Just enough to have some major fun with color.

I wanted to cast on right away, but my yarn store didn’t have the needles I like so they ordered them for me. Don’t you just hate having to wait to cast on??? It’ll be worth it, I’m sure. :)

Not telling you what I’m gonna make, tho. (It’s pointless ’cause I keep changing my mind)… but when I do, you’ll be the first to know! :)

Have a rainbow day! :)

rainbows anonymous

Hi. My name is Saffron and I’m addicted to Rainbows. I mean, seriously. I’ve loved rainbows since I was in high school but it’s now a big part of my love of fiber and color. Every Indie dyer has such a unique eye for rainbows, it’s become so much fun buying trying them.

Cabin Cove Mercantile has recently offered some wonderfully colorful kits.

First came the Original Compass Collection.

It has 21 individually hand dyed 50-yard skeins. That’s over 1,000 yards of fingering weight yarn!!

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I have some ideas of what I’m going to make with it… but the most prominent idea… this idea would require me to buy at least one more kit so it warrants more thought.

Dave’s most recent kit is the Moose Toe’s Rainbow Sock Kit. Yes I bought one and I know exactly what I want to make. Given the snow storm making it’s way across the country, I doubt that it’s shipped yet. But that’s ok. The anticipation is fun!

Rainbows in winter. Gotta love it! :)

FO: elemental hat II

There’s been a flurry of finishing here at saffronknits… here’s one!

I finished the elemental hat! It was a fun mindless knitting project.

The yarn went from the stripey-ness to more barberpole at the top. Next time I make yarn like this, I’ll work to keep the stripey-ness throughout the whole yarn.

I think I want to make another one! :)

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!

fiber friday: rainbow pastel

I took a small break from spinning for a few weeks but with the coming of Tour de Fleece and inspiration from The Hyper Monkey, I decided to start ‘training’ and finally sat down at my wheel to finish my current project.

This was spun from The Painted Tiger’s ‘CMY Party Mix’.

I just wanted a basic barberpole yarn, which worked most of the way except for a couple of sections of green & orange that are more solid.

I call it ‘Rainbow Pastel’. I think I like it! :)

fiber friday: after the storm

I recently saw a rainbow arching across the sky. It was after a rainstorm – the sun came out and as I was driving home, I looked to my left and there was a rainbow… almost a full rainbow. Inspired, I went home and started spinning this – 4 oz Superwash Merino dyed by The Painted Tiger.

My goal was the split the top in half and spin so the colors matched up.

Well… that didn’t work out as planned, which is why I ended up with two skeins.

Nonetheless, I like it. :)

a different kind of rainbow

A while back, when I was experimenting with dyeing, I tried to dye some silk. But it didn’t really turn out the way I’d hoped. I’d read that silk doesn’t absorb water as quickly as wool so you need to soak it longer. So I did. The result was that the silk top seemed to disintegrate in the water. Not wanting to waste good fiber, I dyed it anyway, trying a technique that I came up with on the spot. I never really liked the final product so I didn’t take pictures and hid it in my stash.

Last December, when I couldn’t decide what to spin next, I pulled it out. I hadn’t spun silk before and figured it would be an good introduction. Since it was more like roving, I used more of a long draw to spin this fiber.

One thing I’ve learned about spinning (and somehow keep forgetting) is that the ‘ugliest’ of hand dyed fiber can make the prettiest of yarns.

I’m gonna have to try this dyeing technique again. :)

winter rainbow

I finally finished yarn I started for my Ravelympics challenge. I wanted to spin 8 oz of fiber. Unfortunately, work kinda took over my life (don’t you hate when that happens?). Thankfully, that won’t be permanent, but the result was I wasn’t able to complete my challenge but I did finish the singles by the time the Olympics were over and about a week or two later the yarn was finished. So I present ‘Winter Rainbow’ – 8 ounces of Corriedale Cross (not at soft as Corriedale alone), dyed by The Painted Tiger.

As sometimes happens with yarns I make, I don’t always instantly love them – that was the case with this one … but it grew on me. It’s definitely spun a little more evenly than the previous version.

Ok, I’m off to knit the pink shawl. Happy knitting and/or spinning to you!

are wii having fun?

Yes! Wii are! :D … and that’s…

The good news:
I got a Wii last month! I won it at my company holiday party! Can you believe that? And I love it! I love how active you have to be to play it. I received Wii Fit Plus for Christmas and finally got a TV stand for my TV and soon I’ll have things set up the way I want it and Wii Fit, here I come!

The bad news:
The Wii has distracted me from my spinning! :roll: . I know! How frustrating! (I did, however, achieve my goal of spinning or fiber prep every day in December so I am pleased.)

Can someone find out how to add more hours in the day please? There is not enough time for the fun stuff. *pouts*

Ok, enough pouting! I have what you’ve been waiting for – more stash enhancement! :D

It’s from The Painted Tiger – 8 ounces Corriedale Cross in the colorway ‘RBY Party’.

I had so much fun spinning ‘CMY Party‘, I couldn’t resist a chance to try this one.

I plan on chain-plying this fiber as well, but I hope to spin the singles a little thinner.

See ya later! :)

a mosaic of color

Sometimes I search the internet for fibery inspiration. I love color!

rainbow mosaic

1. 32 Flavors handspun rainbow merino yarns, 2. handspun rainbow merino, 3. Rainbow Sherbet Supercoiled Scrap Art Yarn handspun, 4. yip.111 i spun a rainbow, 5. pastel rainbow, 6. 08_rainbowyarn4, 7. My sock yarn dyed detail, 8. Surprise Party end, 9. coley’s favorite outfit, 10. rainbow BFL macro, 11. grafton rainbow colors, 12. one night stand batts :: john, 13. batts rainbow, 14. Rainbow Batt of Corridale Fibre, 15. Rainbow 1, 16. Remember the Night Rainbow…

day 27: look! a rainbow!

You might have guessed by now that I love rainbows. It’s fun to try different rainbows from different indie dyers. I finally got my hands on one from The Painted Tiger.

Isn’t it gorgeous!? :D The colors are so rich & deep. I’m not gonna spin this right away ’cause it really hasn’t told me how it wants to be spun. I love the chain ply I did of the other fiber I got from The Painted Tiger …

But I’m wondering how this one might look if I did a 2 ply and tried to match up the colors as I plied.

Hmm … I’m gonna have to think about that one.

can’t… stop… knitting…

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.

i love this yarn!

‘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???

friday was a good day…

I went to the yarn store on Halloween. I took the day off and wanted to do something fun and what’s more fun than a yarn store?

When I got there, they had a sample of a knit ornament on the counter and I loved it. I’d seen it online, but there’s nothing like seeing things in person. Luckily, they had one pattern left so I bought it. The pattern is called ‘Deck the Balls …. with leftover sock yarn’ by KalamazooKnits. The pattern is written for circulars, but it’s easily done on DPNs. Also, I did have to rework the pattern a little to match my gauge.

I didn’t feel I had a lot of leftover sock yarn so I bought this: Jitterbug by Colinette in the colorway “Mardi Gras”. I just love rainbowy yarn. :D

Here are my first two ornaments:

Made with Colinette Jitterbug colorway ‘Mardi Gras’

Made with Dream In Color Smooshy colorway ‘Ruby River’

These are so fun!