This is a beautiful and ever popular feather and fan stitch pattern from Scarf Style book. The original name is Misty Garden but I like to call it Feather and Fan Scarf. It is knitted from my own hand dyed and hand spun yarn Cotton Candy. I used 5 mm knitting needle for this project. My scarf is a little bit shorter because I only had 223 metres.
The roving before spinning :
Spun to this :
And the finished scarf:
I just love to watch how the colours changes as I was knitting along. Every row is a different colour. It was fun to knit and I couldn't wait to finish it. I am pleased that it turn out well. What do you think?
Yes, I got myself a Majacraft Suzie Professional wheel last Friday. I ordered my wheel from Ewegivemetheknits.com on 2nd May 2009. That's long time ago? You are right, that is how long I have to wait to get my wheel. I was waiting and waiting everyday for the postman...I think my neck grew longer too! :P Here it is :
She is a beauty! I also bought an Ashford Competition lazy kate for plying :
These are the slivers that I got from EGMTK too! :
It is such a joy to spin with Suzie Pro. It spins quietly and smoothly. This is my first handspun with Suzie Pro :
It is my hand dyed Cotton Candy that I plied 2 ply. The yarn is 107 gms BFL measuring 223 metres fingering weight. The second handspun is my hand dyed Forest. I tried Navajo plying with this Merino roving and I got 253 metres from 140 gms. I love the yarn spun using this method because it is so round and strong.
Last but not least...I want to thank my dear friends Elaine, Aw and Mei for helping me to make this tough but worthy decision to buy my wheel. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)
Believe it or not ....this is my first pair of socks. I wanted to knit a pair of socks for my husband's birthday. So, when I saw this beautiful pattern from Yarnissima, I knew I have to knit it. I like this pattern because it is knitted toe up and I can knit it as long as I want without wasting too much yarn. I used one ball of Plymouth Sockotta yarn. The yarn is a mixture of cotton, superwash wool and nylon. I guess it turn out fine ....it fit! :)
I have always loved and fascinated by the beautiful colours that can be created from handpainted rovings. So there I was mixing dye like a mad scientist trying to get just the perfect colour that I want. These are my latest two creations from my kitchen :) I have named my first roving Cotton Candy because it reminded me so much of those fluffy sweet candy. It is 107 gm of BFL that I got from World Of Wool.
The second one shown in the photo below is Forest. I love the contrasting and blending colours of orange, brown, green and my favourite lilac. This is 140 gm of 23 mic merino. It is so soft and squishy. My son actually love it very much and squeeze it againt his face. Lol ....that was a lovely sight!
Next, I will be busy spinning these rovings. I hope it will turn out beautifully! :D
I always visit my mother-in-law in Kuala Lumpur during the school holidays. As usual,me and my family will shop at MPH Mid Valley Megamall. I love to spend my time browsing knitting books and magazines. Then suddenly, I saw this beautiful wrap cum top from Knit'N Style April 2009 issue. Without hesitating, I grab the magazine and bought it. That is me..sometimes I just buy the magazine because of one pattern that I really love. Do you do that too? :)
To knit a small size top, I will need 7 balls of 50 gms (125 yds) yarn. So there I was going through my drawers of yarn looking for the perfect yarn. Luckily for me I found out that I have just enough yarns for this top. I have 5 balls of 50 gms (178 yds) Katia Swing in green. Incidentally, the green yarn that I have is very close to the one worn by the model :) I didn't swatch it ...lazy me...so I ended up with a slightly shorter width for the strap. You can see that it is not perfect! Guess that I have learnt my lesson...."ALWAYS SWATCH PAT!"
Yes, this is my first attempt to hand spin yarn on a drop spindle. I chose the steamed method to dye my roving using food colouring. First, I soaked the roving from Ashford in a pail of tap water with a drop of dish washing liquid added. After one hour, I poured away the water and squeezed the roving gently to get rid of excess water. Laid some newspapers on the table and placed two pieces of cling film on top of it. Next, I placed my rovings on the cling film and squeezed my prepared food colouring of my choice over it. To make the colouring, put a drop of food colouring with 2 tablespoon of vinegar and add 1 cup of water into a container. Stirred it well and poured into squeeze bottle.
Make sure that the colour is absorbed and no white patches on the bottom. Wrapped up the roving with another piece of cling film and rolled it up like a swish roll. Placed it in a steamer and steamed for one hour.
Let the dyed roving to cool completely before cutting out the cling film. Next, rinsed the roving in tap water several times until the water ran clear. Hung it to dry but away from the sun. It took almost 2 days for it to dry completely.
When it was dry, it's time to draft and spin on my drop spindle. Spinning was fun but arm breaking because I have to constantly lift my left arm up to draft and spin. I've learnt that in order to spin finely and evenly, drafting is the most important process in spinning. Drafting it real fine helped in spinning fine and even yarn. I dyed half the roving variegated colours of yellow, red and apple green and the other half was a solid lime green. The two yarns are then plied together using a pepper container. Didn't know that a pepper container is so handy :)
Ta-da! My first 2 ply handspun is done. I was so thrilled seeing my labor of love. I want to thank my friend Aw for teaching me to dye the roving.
This raglan was inspired by a stitch pattern with some modifications. I love variegated yarns, so I decided to knit stockinette stitch on both sides of the leaf design and... it is much faster to knit too :) The photo does not capture the true colour of this yarn. It is much orangy in colour. Originally I intended to knit seed stitch for the sleeves but I changed my mind and decided to keep the leaf design. My decision was right..it turned out well.
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