Or: The Spinning Continues Well hello, lovelies! You may or may not remember that a little over a month ago, I rekindled my love of spinning. Since it turning fluff into yarn was the obsession du jour, it only made sense for me to join a Tour de Fleece team. What is Tour de Fleece you ask? It's an event that takes place every year concurrent with the Tour de France. The bicyclists spin their wheels, we fiber artists spin ours. I didn't set a specific goal for myself beyond spinning more during the Tour than usual. Since "usual" was only slightly more than none, this is not a particularly lofty goal, but I believe in setting yourself up for...
My Hat, It Has Three Corners The third and final hat for the month is a triangular tam. Because I've had such a very excellent track record of running out of yarn at the end, and because I was planning on knitting this hat from scraps, I decided to begin the hat with a very small amount of turquoise, then finish it in a large amount of brown. Thus, I would have planned to make the hat two colors from the beginning, and this hat would not have an odd splotch in the middle of it. So I swatched, cast on, and knit the hat. I must say, it did make a hat-shaped object. And it is triangular. However, upon closer...
First Dwarves, Now Gnomes Note: This article was originally posted on the Skein Shop News feed due to a touch of user error. My apologies. Next up is the Ganomy hat, whose name is obviously a play on a literal pronunciation of "gnome". I've made this hat before, and it is a real winner. The shaping is elegant, functional, and warm. I think it results in a totally adorable hat, but I've found that the other adults around me tend to find the shape rather childish. Their loss. So I set out to use up some stash. Can you see where this is going already? Of course I chose a discontinued yarn. Of course I ran short. The good news...
Diggy Diggy Hole This hat is genius. It is quick, simple, and, to quote Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. The thick yarn knits up quickly and will be warm in the winter, the shaping at the back of the neck curves the earflaps down elegantly, and the tassel adds a bit of whimsy. The only possible modification I would make on future versions would be to put a buttonhole in the corner of one earflap so they could be buttoned securely under the chin. However, true to form I ran short of yarn. I was testing a skein of Kraemer Perfection Super Bulky, and there was just not quite enough. If I had made the neck flap a...
Spinning Wheel Got to Go Round... Last night I retrieved the wheel from my sister. It's very dusty and dirty, but I can tell it's going to be a real beauty! The first order of business was to assess what parts of the wheel were working well, what parts were not working well, and what parts were not present. I quickly wiped the wheel down, but it's still pretty dirty. I need to get some q-tips to get into some of the crevices. Once I'm satisfied with the cleanliness, I'll wipe it down with wood oil. There appear to be some inlays or painting that I think will be quite lovely. Parts of the drive wheel have a bit of a...
