And now, for something fiber-related

This is a short segue into what I've been up to with respect to spinning and knitting.

I took knitting with me on the trip and managed to make some progress on a very long stretch of stockinette. I am making Viajante with the mink yarn I purchased a few weeks ago. It starts with a basic garter stitch triangle and then you join the stitches in a circle and continue knitting. But at this point, the pattern has one decrease at the join every other round and increase at the triangle center point every round. The increase-every-round was giving me fits. No matter what increase method I used - and I tried three - there was a big hole on the left hand side increase. I think it has to do with how I knit. So I decided not to do the decrease and just increase every other round. Yes, the effect will be slightly different but who says I need to recreate what the designer did?

Here it is

That is two different angles showing the angled base as well as the increase line.

I also finished spinning the second single and plying/finishing the last of the fiber in project unlayer. So now I am done with all the wheel spinning I was doing.

I spun this a bit thick and lightly twisted but plied it a bit tighter to make what I hope will be an fluffy but durable yarn. It is Romney so that should help the durability. I want to make mittens for myself and maybe a hat if there is enough yardage.

I also blocked the Bryce Canyon shawl...

I also wanted to share some of the jewelry and stuff I bought in Australia. I got some jewelry at an arts center fair in Melbourne.

This is a very interesting scarf. It is a silk scarf that has beads and a hook on the other end. You can wrap the scarf around your neck and then hook the beads into loops as you please to make a necklace/scarf.

The top photo in the collage is the jewelry I bought. The left two are dichroic glass and match. The right hand side is gold dust inside a glass bottle. The bottom one is a stone that is enclosed in an openable sterling silver cage.





The bottom photo is gifts that I bought for others. Left to right: handpainted linen towels, a skein of handpainted merino sock yarn, possum fur insoles and a handpainted notebook cover with accessories.

That is all for now. I tried spinning some silk and it drove me nuts so I put it in timeout. I tried it on the minispinner so I may try it on the spindle.

A mid-week dose of fiber

Happy Hump Day!

I thought I would liven up the middle of the week with some pretty colors.

I made a collage of the color progression in the Fiber Optic Autumn Harvest gradient. The next color up is brown which fades into black. You can just see the brown beginning to appear in the bottom shot.

And I put Ru's gift to use. My current knitting WIP is inhabiting the project bag in high style.

And here it is, all snug as a bug in a rug. Did you know the bag is reversible? That Ru, she is very creative! If you want to make one just like it, she has instructions on her blog.

Yes, I know the green clashes with the rest of the picture. Unfortunately, that is my current WIP. Once it is tucked up inside, no one will notice the color clash.

Back to your mid-week madness!

A fable (but not a tall story)

Once upon a time, there were people. They were united by two things - a love of what they made with their hands and a love of a certain place. A magical wizard brought them together and they grew to know and love each other as friends. They lived far from each other but they were able to talk to and see each other via the magic that the wizard gave them. Sometimes, occasionally, they were able to meet and talk without the help of the magic, but these were far less frequent than their magical visits.

Many years passed and one of the people thought that it would be a good idea to celebrate their friendship with a festival. It had to be a magical festival because they lived so far from each other. When this idea was brought up, all the people jumped with joy because they loved the idea of the festival. In the place that they loved, festivals are common and much celebrated. Festivals also involve gifts and thus the people brought gifts for each other. They used the magic to talk and visit and chat with each other, using the festival time to get to know each other even better. A good time was had by all!

Can you guess what this is about? I'll tell you at the end...

But here are my gifts from the festival, made by hand because that is one of the things we love.

They came in a bag with two letters inside

One letter was fun and the other was rather boring. I'll leave you to figure out which is which.

There was a project bag, to carry the things we make by hand.

There was a spinner's lap cloth, although the person who made it isn't a spinner.

There was tea, and a sachet and a pin.

And last, but not least, some other things to help make the things we love by hand.

It was all tied together with love and a big red ribbon.

The love and creativity and generosity in this gift is making my heart sing.

Have you guessed the magic? It is Ravelry and Casey is the wizard. My gifts were sent to me by Ru, who I have actually met in person.

I had a post all set to go today that was unrelated to this but when my gift arrived yesterday, I had to throw that out and write this one instead. I'll post the other one later this weekend.