Tour de Fleecing

1. COLORBOMB 'Tour de Rainbow' Menage a Trois style handspun yarn, 2. Rogue Adventures SW BFL in 'Fun', 3. Rogue on the bobbin for TdF, 4. Happy Sparkler Day!, 5. My Wheel has a Tail, 6. 1 Down, 1 to Go!, 7. Tour de Toes, 8. First Full Bobbins of the Tour, 9. Topless Touring, 10. Tour de Rainbow closeup, 11. Tour de Rainbow all plyed and on the bobbins!, 12. Tour de Rainbow on the skeinwinder, 13. Ta DA! 1st spin of the Tour is Finis!

As a chronic joiner, I couldn't resist Tour de Fleece, the annual spinning challenge that runs concurrently with the Tour de France. 'Riding' for Team COLORBOMBers, Team Rogue, and Team Lendrum, I finished my first TdF yarn!

Tour de Rainbow, one of my Ménage à Trois™ style yarns, is 206 yards of stripey, bright goodness! It is superwash BFL fiber that I got from Trish at Rogue Adventures on Etsy. Can't recommend her enough!

Now, to find the right pattern for it...

Tags: Tour de Fleece, handspun yarn, COLORBOMB Creations

A SAL, a KAL, & a Cowl

Three-fer! Ever wanted to feel like an Elizabethan queen (or king)? Then boy, do I have a pattern for you: the Court Jester Cowl! My friend Tracy Hudson, aka Himalaya, knit up a kickin' cowl, & when she posted it in the Novelty & Art Yarn Spinners group on Ravelry, my cohorts and I jumped on it. You're lookin' at me in mine - Buffoon in my projects - there in the photo-op at Black Sheep Gathering.

Soon as I saw Tracy in hers, I PMed her & demanded that she write up the pattern. Turns out, I wasn't the only one pestering her to do so. Studioloo Cindy also inquired, albeit more gently than I, about a pattern. Tracy was gracious enough to accommodate us, and it bloomed into a 3-way spin-along/knit-along in the N&AYS, COLORBOMBers, & Insubordiknit groups on Ravelry.

Designed to show off art yarn ("art for your neck" as Tracy dubbed it), it's a corrugated rib cowl with two contrasting art yarns, knit in the round. I had this skein of thick-and-thin COLORBOMB Singular TnT handspun in my stash, spun last year, & decided it would be a nice backdrop for some supercoils. I dug out some acid green Romney roving my friend Janet gave me & set to spinning up some LoopyDoopy Minis for the project.

This would have been a REALLY fast knit-up if I hadn't had to stop repeatedly to spin more supercoils. In fact, I ran out of the acid green fiber and had to spin the yellow Romney, and eventually spun up some chartreuse Romney. But they look great together, & unless I mention it they're just a "design element". ;)

I did a few pattern mods on mine: cast on fewer stitches to make it tighter in the neck like a turtleneck, added extra ribs, did my ribs as purls to pop the texture to the front, substituted seed stitch for stockinette at the hem, & made mine longer. Mine didn't ruffle around the bottom edge like the pattern because of the extra increases & length. I called mine 'Buffoon' because, according to Wikipedia, it "is a term for someone who provides amusement through inappropriate appearance and/or behavior.” Me to a T!

I was planning to line it with fabric (the Romney in the supercoils makes it a little scratchy), but I realized that would make it difficult to maintain the stretchiness, which it needs to be nice & snug around the neck. Besides, when it is cold enough to wear this TOASTY garment, I'll probably have a turtleneck on underneath it to keep it off my neck anyway.

Received the very BEST comment on it from Jim/Fosterson: "It's like a Gallifreyian High Council Collar on acid!" Gotta love a man that makes Dr. Who references!

Speaking of Jim, check out his version of the cowl. One of my COLORBOMB customers, apuffyj, made one using a skein of my Enwraptured handspun yarn - beautiful in blue! And the incomparable Miki/Knitzphat made a gorgeous chocolate brown/green version.

So, the pertinents: I used ~75 yards of a bulky singles for the main color, 'Psych', and ~40 yards of 'Acidic' supercoils for the contrast color. Knit on US13 needles. SUPER easy-peasy pattern, too. If you've been looking for a simple but effective way to show your handspun art yarn (or someone else's) off to best effect, this is a great lil' project.

Tags: knitting, art yarn, COLORBOMB Creations, handspun, cowl

Day 3 Challenge Handspun

Too late & too tired to give much of a post about it, but I did spin today; finished the cotton supercoils started yesterday. Yield: 22 yards. Dang, but coils take for freakin' EVER!! There's about 100 yards or more of singles in there, at least. Le sigh.

I'm poopered. Night all, see you tomorrow for Yarn #4!!

Tags: yarn, handspun, artyarn, COLORBOMB

Cotton! I Spun Cotton!

It's Day 2 of the Yarn Every Day Challenge, & I wanted to do some wee supercoils, but I didn't have much in the way of top or roving in the stash. ButI had this bag of hand-painted cotton sliver from Woodland Woolworks that the lovely Mandie of EGMTK sent me in a care package last year, just sitting around minding it's own business, & I decided it was about damn time I tackled it.

Cotton, seriously; who knew? I thought it would be a huge pain in the ass, totally un-doable without a charkha or Tahkli spindle. Figured I'd give it a whirl, discover my limitations, & move on. But lo & behold, it was no problem at all!

Someone asked me how I drafted, but honestly, I have no idea what to tell them! I learned to spin using the spinning from the fold method, but haven't used it since then. As far as I can tell, I use some sort of weird inchworm drafting method. Mostly what I do is spin by feel, by intuition, by the seat of my pants. My yarns are sturdy & I like working with them, so presumably I'm doing something right, but it makes it difficult for me to effectively explain how I got from A to B. I think the recipient of this skein, which I need to finish plying, I think she'll like it. And I only used half of the 4oz. of fiber, so I might see what else I can whip up with this cotton! Think I'll look into getting some to dye, as well. A job for another day.

Tags: yarn, handspun, spinning

Yarn Every Day Challenge - Day Uno!

Check it out: I found Blondechicken's Yarn Everyday Challenge via Ravelry, and decided to get on board. The challenge? Spin something every day for the month of April. I thought I'd take it a step further, & shoot for spinning an entire yarn every day in April! This is my Day 1 yarn.

I used the flowers I felted using the Husqvarna needle-felter I borrowed from Janet in February (remember my post about it?). I used the technique suggested by Jacey in her Sit and Spin! DVD, stringing the 'flowers' on pieces of roving, then spinning the roving directly into my singles. Those flowers aren't going anywhere!

I used the big ol' batt of purple Romney I bought from Janet at the Natural Fiber Festival last fall. Ended up with 100 yards of 6-7WPI Bulky weight yarn that I think I might full a bit to finish. It'll go to my Etsy shop as soon as it's ready!

Wanna see what everyone else is making? Check out the Yarn Every Day Flickr Pool. And don't forget to check back to see what I make tomorrow.

Tags: yarn, handspun, spinning, challenge