My First Spinning Attempt

I finally had an opportunity to take a drop spindle class.

I purchased some rovings and a spindle last summer to start practicing spinning, and was never able to do it.
So I decided to take some classes to give me a motivation to enter this new world.

This white ball is my very first yarn:




I also worked on a roving that I bought long time ago. It is beautiful! It happens to be a one dyed by my teacher. What a coincidence!! It came out as super thick & thin, but that's fine for now (I hope...).

The second class was about carding, combing, 2ply, blocking and finishing. I carded two different rovings (blue & pink shade) together and made a fine yarn on the left. It was so smooth and easy to spin. I also tried to make 2ply yarn, second from the left.

The next right one was a wool dyed by my teacher. I carded this wool and made a yarn and plied into 2 ply, shown far right.




I also purchased a roving of wool, silk and mohair mix. I tried to spun, but it was very gentle and easy to break off, so I ended up making a super bulky yarn (shown as balls). Then, my teacher demonstrated how to spin this type of fragile roving, and made some fine, fantastic yarn (shown on the spindle).




Oh, what a differece! I just need more practice.

What a great class! I truly enjoyed this experience. Hopefully I can continue to work on some spinning!

Trellis Scarf Finished

My Trellis Scarf is done! I can finally send this to my mom... I knitted this for my mom's b-day, which was in early March, and ended up taking a lot more time than I thought... Yet, I like the pattern, and it is very airy and warm, and hopefully my mom will like it!




Pattern: Trellis Scarf from Interweave Knits Spring 2006
Designer: Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud (100% Baby Alpaca; 440 yd/50g) : Smoke 1 skein
Needle: US #5

I skipped a couple repeat so that it came out a bit shorter than the original. I blocked this on a regular towel, so it didn't come out nice... I wish I had that blocking board that everyone has! This time, I realized that the blocking board is very useful for blocking a lace knit.

Now, I have to go back to Jaywalker... I am totally plunged in the Second Sock Syndrome... I should get out of this very soon, or otherwise, I won't finish it at all...

Domino Vest Finished~

Domino Vest is finished ---

Here is the front:



And here is the back:


Pattern: Sekaino Amimono Fall-Winter 2005
Yarn: left over yarns

It came out a bit loose, but it is very airy & warm. I like this type of asymmetric design. Very unique!

Here is a couple images of sew in together---





I tried many different ways to sew them together, and these worked the best for me. It's always a struggle to finish the sweater, but I have experienced lots of different ways to weave in this time.

Domino Vest

I have finished 14 pieces of domino motif --- 6 more to go. I don't know if I can finish this weave in ends finishing, though... I change yarns every four rows, so it would take forever to finish this...

It's still pretty cold here, so I still have a chance to wear this for a couple times... let's hope so!

Another yarn purchase...

One of my resolutions for this year was "Not to buy one ball of yarn, unless I know what to make with it", and I totally can't stick to it.

It is my bad habit, but I simply can't leave yarn stores without purchasing anything... Since I don't have enough money to purchase multiple yarns, I ended up buying only one skein... oh...

Anyway, these are the yarns that I purchased yesterday. They are Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed and Jaggerspun Zephyr.

These days, I am so tempted to knit with something purple, which I almost never worked on, and I am now wondering what to make out of these yarns... I hope I can come across something light and airy for spring~

BTW, I made a tiny bit of progress in my trellis scarf. I really like this pattern. Simple & beautiful! Now I can see the diagonal shapes... hopefully this will be done soon!

Stock Bin Clearance Vest?

I decided to work on this vest... This pattern is from a Japanese Knitting Book called "Sekai-no Amimono" and the photo is on hte front cover. This original vest uses a yarn called "Cortona", but I couldn't find any substitute yarn for this, and I have decided to bring some of my yarns in the stock bin and combine them to look a bit like the original.

I probably have to do awful amount of "weave in ends" finishing...

IK Spring 2006 Trellis Scarf

I happened to be knitting another scarf with this Alpaca Cloud yarn (in same color!), and as soon as I saw this issue, I decided to frog it and knit this scarf instead.

This is a great pattern! So simple, and beautiful. It enhances the best part of this fine Alpaca yarn.

"7 into 5 cluster" is new to me --- it comes out so nice! Another new technique to learn.

I know I have to finish other sweaters first, but I am going to keep knitting this as well...