Tag Archives: yarn

This Could Mean Trouble

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My new job means a new commute. The silver lining? The new area I work in has a LYS! And on a break this week I fell down in the store and my card bought new yarn.

Am I going to Knitting in the Heartland conference in less than two weeks? Yes. But I was feeling good this day and the yarn fumes got me. I picked up three skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Matisse Blue, Cian, and Purpuras. Then one skein of Malabrigo Arroyo in Sea Slug. All of these skeins are destined to be hats. My brain cells are taken up by the new job some easy hat knitting feels good.

Next up was two skeins of 316 Dye Studio in their House DK and graffiti colorway. I have some of this in my stash for a sweater and my post COVID body needs more yardage. They are different dye lots so I will have to shade/alternate. But I’m okay with that. Lastly are two bunches of fiber from Malabrigo Nube in Solis and Indiecita colorways. I think I will spin each as singles and ply together. They coordinate nicely.

Someone asked me what I was making and I said ‘Happiness’ because you should never ask a knitter about their stash!

Worsted Haul

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The Hat Mojo is going strong into 2024. And I have worked up almost every single worsted weight skein that is not handspun in my stash. Therefore, I got more. This time from Treasure Goddess Yarn, which is local (ish) to me.

My hat stash over-floweth here at Casa Rachelle so these hats will definitely be donated or gifted. So I went with some basic and easy to coordinate colors. I totally understand my color sense doesn’t always jive with other peoples.

The tonal black skein on the right is going to be a pony tail hat for a coworker friend. In 2023 my proverbial tanks were so low that trying to work on “duty bound” knitting really had me avoiding it. And towards the end of the year I just worked on project that were easy and gave me joy. I was much happier and more engaged. So that’s the plan for 2024.

No lists, no duty…..just knitting joy. Even if it’s 1,000 basic beanies 🙂

Happy Knitting!!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

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I have basically knit through all of my worsted weight stash (that isn’t handspun) and I have been getting great joy from knitting hats lately. So I jumped on Etsy and grabbed some more worsted from one of my favorite dyers, Lilliput Yarn.

Though my brain has not been working lately. I came down with an upper respiratory virus from my conference and my husband caught COVID from a work exposure. So we have been feeling really puny around here. I THOUGHT I purchased three skeins of worsted. But what I had done is two skeins of worsted and one skein of Rudy’s sport. Score one for cold medicine and brain fog.

The sport skein is a mix merino and nylon and will make an excellent pair of socks. I think that might be my next cast on after I finish my Emotional Support Socks. And I think I will try to get the other two started as hats ASAP for TV knitting and travel knitting.

Happy Knitting!!

Gal’s Gifts

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I firmly hold that one’s “gals” give the best gifts. I had the good fortune to bond very deeply with a work colleague who moved on to another City. And we developed quite the group chat with one of her new coworkers because we missed hanging out. We all three enjoy crafty things and each other’s senses of humor.

This lovely box was delivered to me from those two gals. Without asking they know exactly what to gift me.

This box contained many yummy chocolates and two full sock sets from Amber Waves of Fiber. The color is called “Santa’s Workshop” and the content is 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. I have enough yarn for a large shawl or multiple socks. I need to meditate on what this yarn wants to grow up to be.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Pink Merino Sparkly 2-ply

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My tiny 85 gram batt of shedding merino and sparkle is finally complete and done leaving a trail of fluff in my house! I have a finished Pink Merino Sparkle 2-ply to show for it!

I ended up with an 84 gram skein that made 88 yards. So I lost very little of the original batt despite the fluffy shedding. This skeins is a little inconsistant. Some parts were worsted at 9 wraps per inch and other sections were closer to 11 wraps per inch which is more DK weight.

Still, I’m happy with the skein. I don’t know what I will make with it as it sheds. But for now it will join the precious handspun stash. Now its time to make Christmas cookies!!! Bring on Christmas break 🙂

Happy Spinning!!

Themes On A Color Story

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I saved up some fun money and managed to blow it all in one place, lol. I fell down in Hannah of The Corner of Craft’s shop update last month.

The two skeins on the left are BFL DK in a variegated purple called Metagaming Pigeon, the pink skein is a sparkle sock in the Net of Shadows colorway and finally the darkest skein is another BFL DK skein in Gift for Lolth. I also couldn’t resist the hand beaded project marker because avocado is one of my favorites.

Full disclosure, I have zero plans for any of this yarn. I really should pull out all of my Chromatic Yarn stash to see what I have amassed so far. At this point I could probably make a whole blanket with just this dyer, lol.

Happy Stashing!!

Gratuitous Handspun – Deep Regret 2-ply

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Another skein of handspun has joined the stash! This merino tencel blend absolutely flew off my wheel. I had prepared this roving into little nestlets and managed fairly thin singles. All in all I think this was managed across four or five days.

I spun two bobbins and with my “go-to” 2ply approach which resulted in a sport weight with some light worsted spots. Super super super happy with this one! The 2-ply was 150 yards of yarn over 113 grams with really lovely barber poling.

My bobbins weren’t quite even and I had a little leftover so I chain plied the remainder into a teeny tiny 3-ply skein. Its 8 yards over 10 gram so a little heftier skein but gorgeous nonetheless.

Now I just need to plot my next spin! Happy spinning!!

Let’s Barber-pole!

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I managed to squeak in some plying this past weekend in between laundry and dishes. Still trying to get my sea legs back after getting a cold. Darn boogers anyway!

I 2-plied the extra fine merino singles onto one super cute bobbin. I just let this fiber be what it wanted to be and didn’t try for anything in particular. I haven’t measured yet but I am guessing I have another worsted skein. I am going to let this sit on the bobbin and get it washed/whacked later this week.

But now….what to spin next??

Super Fast 3-ply

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My wee little batt spun up very quickly as predicted! I had time this week to finish the singles and start the 3-ply. I only let my singles rest about 12 hours but I haven’t seen that cause any problems…yet.

My finished skein is a very energetic 3-ply and is super twisting back on itself. Again some of this will wash out. The skein is also very tiny so I don’t predict having many yards in this but I loved the process of this so much.

My plying wasn’t too shabby. I had a few pig tails sneak in but looking at the yarn I can see I got a nice high twist yarn that is (mostly) uniform. Now I’m off to wash a whole bunch of handspun!

Happy Spinning!!

Energetic Corriedale

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I have my blue Corriedale off the bobbins and ready for a nice wool bath.

This two ply is really energized as you can see the skeins are twisting back on themselves. I can tell I really put some extra twist into these skeins as I plied. I will lose some of this overtwist/energy when I was them.

And I can confirm that these skeins will be heavy worsted to maybe a light bulky weight yarn. The corriedale is not next to skin soft but I am interested to see if this softens any after washing. Happy Spinning!!