Last weekend at the Grandparent, PB was presented with a special Grandma present….her very own unicorn pillow!
My mom is a brilliant quilter with a full suite of tools. PB was ENTHRALLED by the finished pillow and proceeded to leave it on her spot on the couch. It turned out fairly large and is more of cushion than a pillow.
It was too cute not to share with all of you! Happy Sewing!!
I dug out the niddy noddy and got my handspun off the bobbins. The colors are wild and I couldn’t be happier! The three skeins of 2-ply are starting off pretty balanced with just slight over twist.
Pre-washing the finished weight is 7.6 ounces on the 2-ply skeins and 0.4 ounces on the chain ply/3-ply skein. This is enough yarn that I need to clean out the sink for washing basin as my little plastic tub won’t but it for these.
Happy Spinning!!
Let me introduce you to Clara the Emotional Support Chicken!
Pattern: Emotional Support Chicken by Annette Corsino (Rav Link)
Yarn: My own handspun skeins
Needles: US 7s
Mods: I totally knit the beak from the wrong direction but otherwise stayed on task.
The kids decided that Clara did not need a waddle so she doesn’t have any chin decorations. I am really happy with this finished chicken. I liked the combination of colors in the accent areas. I still have leftovers from all three colors in this chicken so I can absolutely make more chickens. I just need to find the next recipient.
Now I need to get Clara packaged up and sent to her final home with my friend! Happy Knitting!!
It took me a few bobbins and about 1,000 adjustments but I managed to get all of the singles into plied yarn. And it only took four bobbins for this SSK fiber mini spinning project.
Bonus points, the view has been pretty nice here at the Grandparents. I need to wait until I get home and get this yarn wound off into skeins to wash and measure. I finally felt more comfortable with the tension and moving the parts around by bobbin #3.
The three bobbins on the right are all 2-ply skeins where I just let the colors combine as they came off the singles. I had a little bit of singles left on one of the bobbins so I chain plied all those to use them up. It will make a wee little skein.
All in all, I am pretty pleased so far! Happy Spinning!!
I have the weekend booked at Casa Grandparents and I am without all my tools. But I wanted to finish spinning this handspun I brought on my Sparrow.
I found a cardboard box in the recyling and stole two wall hangers for thread from my mom’s sewing room and made do. It was not the smoothest plying but it is putting yarn on the bobbin.
I am still learning this e-wheel and it’s setting. I am struggling with the tension and take-up compared to the Kiwi 3 I have been spinning on. And at the end of the day, I am still making yarn. So as long as I am having fun, I am doing it right!
Happy Spinning!!
Emotional Support Chicken #3 is ready for stuffing.
I asked my Mom if she had some stuffing I could use and she brought me a 5 lb full box of vintage polyfill stuffing. Lol, I think my chicken will be fine!
However, in editing this photo I noticed that I made an error on the eyes and the beak. I knit them from the wrong side. Easy enough to detach the eyes and move but the beak is a bit of an oops. I am just going to leave it. AND I am going to seam the chicken from the correct side. I just can’t live with the wrong side out. I guess that will teach me to pay attention!
(Semi) Happy Knitting!!
The second bobbin of my SSK spinning project is filling up nicely. I managed to give the grands to the grandparents for the evening and snag some spinning time and a cold beer.
I am still spinning with no plan and just grabbing whatever color feels good. All vibes, no plan. And I am still getting used to my Sparrow e-wheel. It takes a few tweaks now and again, especially after transporting to and fro. But I am learning as I go and I think it is going okay.
A few more minutes of alone time and I will have these singles done! Happy Spinning!!
Emotional Support Chicken #3 has moved to the chicken breast portion.
These short rows really do have me counting all the time. It is fairly ingenious construction with a nice finished look and short rows in garter are my favorite. I need to complete another step and then I think I will work in the darker brown.
This chicken will go to another work friend who could benefit from an office support chicken. I just need to get the gift package together…
Happy Knitting!!
I still have some Emotional Support Chicken mojo after finishing #2. So here comes #3!
I had PB and Jellybean pick out the the next handspun. PB picked some Romney 2-ply and I grabbed the leftover of the unknown brown 3-ply and the creamy romney white leftovers. I managed to get the tail feather completed and connected.
I think I am going to mix the accent colors of the white and dark brown colors against the main medium brown color. I have enough to play around with color on this one. And still have leftovers for #4.
Happy Knitting!!
I have decided to swatch for my Love Note. And I learned some lessons.
First up, this is not the fingering weight yarn I plan to make the sweater out of. I will be playing yarn chicken with my Old Rusted Chair sock yarn so I pulled some fingering scraps from my leftovers to swatch with that has the same yarn base.
I knit the top swatch first with the pattern recommended gauge. And boy howdy….was she tight. I was easily 4+ stitches over gauge. So I went up from US 7s to US 9s. And a bath for both led to me to understand that US 9s are what I need. My row gauge is off a little but I can account for that.
Just need to get my other WIPs clear so I can start this! Happy Knitting!!
Michele plays with yarn, food, and music in Portland
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