2.03.2010

Handspun Baby Surprise Jacket

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First, go check out the Baby Surprise Jacket that Rachel Marie of Knitty Dirty Girl just knit- clearly we are on the same wavelength of BSJ knitting! Hers is her handdyed yarn with some of my Midnightsky Fibers handspun. She is always so fast on getting stuff up on Ravelry, I am lucky if I even TALK about finished projects, much less getting pictures of them on ravelry!


My latest BSJ is in my naturally dyed handspun and the remaining recycled cashmere from the unraveled shawl. Actually, the ENTIRE thing is from leftover and recycled yarns, since the handspun was yarn I was using to weave a handspun scarf. I just sold my loom though, so until I find one that doesn't bruise my knees (and folds up even smaller!) there won't be many more handspun woven scarves!

At any rate, I spun the yarn for this up on my new super fast lendrum flyer, which is quite exciting since it has some of the fastest ratios availble on a spinning wheel! The yarns are thick lace/light sock weight, and one is a medium sock weight.


The buttons are all reclaimed, given to me in swaps, etc. They all are the same white tone, but each is a little different.
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I put it through my front loading washer (twice!) to full it a bit and make it fluff out a bit. Side benefit it that it lightly felts the ends together, which is good since the cashmere is spit spliced together in a bunch of places!

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I totally edged it in icord before sewing it up!

2.02.2010

Spinning Pebble Yarn

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Pre blocking. Spun with recycled plastic soda bottle fiber corespun around a cotton core strung with wool felt baubles.

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It all started with these colorful felt pebbles, from Lila La Malice (no longer operating as far as I know, she did great felt items). I had only two little packets of them, in all shapes and sizes and colors, from teeny tiny up to about a 1/2 inch.

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The pebbles are a dense hand felt, but can still be strung easily on to cotton. I am using cotton tatting thread, since it is strong and super smooth, which is important when trying to avoid breaking the thread when fuzziness from the felt starts to build up.

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I strung the pebbles on the the thread in two batches, and moved them by hand along the thread to get them in position- each pebble varies from inches to a few feet apart, and there are many many of them over the 100+ yards of yarn, each one placed along the thread by hand. It took a really long time!

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I wound the thread on to a makeshift bobbin while spreading out the pebbles.

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I made sure to tension it enough that the pebbles wouldn't move around too much and get caught on each other. It worked pretty well, I didn't have much trouble unwinding the bobbin while spinning the yarn.

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I decided on corespinning recycled plastic soda bottle fiber around the cotton core, since it is bright white.

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I split the roving up in to chunks and spun it slightly thick and thin around the core, letting it overlap over the felt on one side a bit so it looks like the pebbles are popping out of the yarn.

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New Pattern! Pickle Mitts

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There is a new pattern! Pickle Mitts! Quick, easy, and http://www.blogger.com/you can use handspun yarn or a commercial yarn (I give some yarn subs even on the pattern page). Great for gifts, these only take a couple hours to knit (but are in a thin enough yarn to make them wearable so you can still move your hands!). Child-adult sizing.

Available as an individual patter or pattern license (for wholesale) at Midnightsky Fibers via an instant download pdf!Midnightsky Fibers Patterns