Handspun Socks

I finished knitting a pair of handspun socks this week.

They are toe-up socks, knit two-at-a-time on a long 2.75mm circular needle. 52 stitches with a gusset and half handkerchief heel.

I dyed the fibre following recipe/instructions from the Craftsy class Next Steps in Yarn Dyeing with Sarah Eyre. She calls the colour way Rhinebeck.

The fibre-

The yarn-

Knit up -

1x2 rib for the leg-

I really love the colour way. This was a new way of dyeing fibre for me, also different colours that I would have never thought to put together, that really blended well to create great secondary colours.

I also spun and dyed a few more skeins of yarn for the crochet blanket.

It is 15" long now.

I finished washing and combing the rest of the second raw fleece for this blanket! One skein spun and more waiting to be plied and spun. I think that this will be all the fibre I need for the blanket.

This is the latest block for the 1880 Sampler Sew Along from the Temecula Quilt Company.

All the best!♥︎

Woven Fabric

I finished weaving the project I started last week -

Fresh off the loom it was 4.5 metres (almost 5 yards) of 42cm (16.5") wide fabric.

After washing in hot water with lots of agitation, the piece of fabric is now 4.3 metres, and 41cm wide. I'll have plenty of fabric to make some kind of a top.

The fabric has a lovely feel. It is nice and soft. The warp (the length of the fabric) is my hand spun yarn and most of the weft is commercial yarn. More detail about the weaving can be found on my Ravelry project page.

I've been working on making yarn for the crochet blanket.

I 'skirted' (sorting the fleece out, removing dirty pieces etc) the rest of the second fleece last week.

The first four new skeins from this fleece,

and three more. I want to get all the yarn spun now so that the beginning of the blanket matches the end. I have spun almost 1000g of yarn (over 2 pounds), and I think I need about 1500g total.

I am really enjoying this project. It is fun to pick out a new yarn every row (technically a double row).

All I sewed this week is the new 1880 Sampler Sew Along block from Temecula Quilt Company.

All the best!♥︎

A Couple New Projects

This week I started a new weaving project -

I put 5 metres of handspun on the loom for the warp - I used all kinds of odds and ends of about lace weight yarn.

For the weft I am using a commercial lace yarn and adding small pieces of handspun for texture. The plan is to weave fabric for a garment.

I also started a crochet blanket - 

More like a scarf at the moment!

The pattern is Granny Stripe by Attic24,

and I am using the yarn I showed last week.

I dyed it various colours.

I think I need about 3 times as much yarn as I have,

draining after the first wash

so I started cleaning some more fleece (I was given 5 fleeces in total, that is why I decided to make a blanket).

Now all combed and ready for spinning (since I love stats, here goes - about 600g of raw fleece, became 473g after washing, and 231g after combing!). I am hoping that the weather warms up enough this week so I can get another whole fleece ready for processing (it is definitely an outdoor activity).

As for sewing news, this is my latest 1880 Sampler Sew Along block from Temecula Quilt Company.

All the best!♥︎

Finished Fleece

Last fall I was given a raw fleece from a local farmer that raises sheep for meat.

This was my first raw fleece that I cleaned and processed myself. I bought hand combs and thought it would take me a year to finish.

I am pleased to say that I finished spinning it! This pile represents 880g of fibre combed and spun into 1845m (2,018 yds), and 578g (20.4 oz) of yarn - it is about fingering/sock weight. 

I also finished knitting a pair of socks. These were knit with yarn from a double strand sock blank that I had dyed in a gradient on a diagonal, so it created micro stripes. I used one end of the balls for the contrasting heels and toes.

Since I always have socks on the needles I started another pair using some hand spun yarn.

For sewing this week I kept up to date with the two quilt alongs that I am participating in -

This quilt block is the Antebellum Album block #2 from Civil War Quilts blog (12" block).

And this quilt block is last week's 1880 Sampler Quilt from Temecula Quilt Company blog (4" block).

All the best!♥︎