Working Through It-Fiber!

The "Bloggage" that is.....I'm still working through it. Hang in there. Just pray this isn't permanent. ;) At least there's finally a post for what you're really here about. NO! Not Tucker...you'll have to wait for that.....this is a craft blog for goodness sakes!!!! It's suppose to be about my fiber and my crafty pursuits! I am more than the sum of my animals. Really, I am. Truly. Oh bother! Fine read this and then I'll post the pics of THE Dog that you're really here for. ppppbllllppptt!

First it's shawl update time! Yes, I'm still working away on Mom's shawl and yes it's still a surprise, so no telly on me yet k?! But, I'm currently on row 182 and it's progressing nicely. (I KNOW! I'm totally surprised I haven't given up on it myself!) I noticed a mistake last night and was able to drop back to fix it. After that, I noticed one about 75 rows back and um....I'm not skilled enough to fix it at this time so it stays in as a "design element". My mother has hand crafted for much of her life and will probably notice said mistake, but will be so tickled by the pressie that she will not mention it at all. She'll wait for me to tell on myself later. ;) hehehe. It's really nice to craft for someone like that. That said, I'm not done with the first ball of yarn yet and have two more. It appears that if I use all three then the shawl will be way to large for her smallish frame. I may make her a scarf/gloves out of the left overs. Her hands and mine are close in size so I'm sure I could fudge the gloves. I was going to pair the shawl with tickets to the local Nutcracker production for her X-Mass pressie so it may get better. ;)

Here you can see it's up to 20" from point up. That's not completely stretched out and I'm curious to see how big it will be when blocked. Unfortunately I'm using a different weight yarn and different needle sizes than are specified in the pattern, so I'm not sure how large the shawl will actually be. ;) Ah the mystery of ignorant knitting! lmao I'm still thrilled with the pattern and I'm thrilled with the yarn and the color progressions. Now I'm trying to find just the right shawl pin (that doesn't cost too much ) and hoping the blocking comes out well. ;) I did ask Cindy for pointers and she most obligingly sent me a quick response! THANK YOU!

In other fiber pursuits....remember back when I was dyeing up fiber batches for a color blending exercise? Well I finally got some time and put together 6 blends. (One of which was Dons suggestion and not shown here yet.) As they are only 2 oz each, they are spinning up quickly. I've completed two and decided to share those with you now instead of waiting until they are all done. I hadn't decided to do anything with the sample skeins, but had thought that they'd just be that, samples. However as I was spinning I began seeing a whole wardrobe of mittens for the coming winter. ;) Yeeeeaaahhhhh.....that's sounding wonderful! So anyhoo, I took a bunch of pics of one of the color blends as it went through the process so that I could share. I didn't do that with all the blends as to be honest it's a bit of a PITA.

This is color blend test #4 at the carder. I numbered them in the order that I planned them, but the numbering had nothing to do with the order in which I spun them. As I liked this color combo the best, it's the one I took pics of and documented through the whole process. Oh yeah, and the first I spun up. ;) Its a gun metal blue, burganday and silver.

Purty! Don't ya think?!!! (Say yes, it'll make me happy.) It was a delicious spin and I enjoyed it muchly! Started dreaming of fingerless mitts almost immediately.

I wound the completed single into a center pull ball so I could ply it on itself. Sorry for the slightly blurry pic.

And here it is all plied up! Love it!! Defiantly a blend I'll repeat!

This is Colorblend #5-not my favorite, but I could so see a pair of mitts out of it. Maybe my preferences are changing. I'm not an orange/red/yellow kind of person, but this one's growning on me.

hehehe! Right before I snapped this pic, I told Don it looked like I was carding Bozo the Clowns hair! So, as I work on these self imposed colorblending exercises, I'll share. I'm learning a bunch and trying to push my boundary's on color usage. You know, trying to get out of my usual usage box. So far I've been pleased. There are a couple I'm concerned about so they keep getting shuffled to the back of the queue which means they'll probably be the most stunning. lol Isn't that how it works?

Oh and the best news to come out of these exercises?

A commission.

Yes, a real commission.

One for money even.

Truly.

I know, I can't believe it myself.

And the best part?

This person only wants the completed yarn.

No.

Knitting.

Involved.

Can I hear a collective "OH YEAH!"?

Only the Fun Stuff!

So what you see here is the dyeing in progress for the "commission". ;)

Notice something new?

Why yes, it is a new dye pot! (The one on the right!) I ordered it through work at a discount so I'm super happy and will confess that when I receive it I was disappointed and though it was too small. I was even going to order a larger one. Then I put it into action and realized how perfect it truly is! So I'm a happy dyer now and no complaints!

Well the fiber for the commission has been dyed and just needs to be picked and then it can be carded and the spinning can begin. I'll just need to concentrate on spinning the yarn in a thickness that will work for the project that the customer wants. Oh! And I need to figure out a price for the skeins too! Wow! I'm still in shock on that one. ;)

So that's it for fiber for now. I'll update as things progress. And now for the DOG post. ;)