High Fiber Friday

(barely under the wire but it is still Friday here on the Left Coast)

The blog chi has been unbalanced of late due to the dominant Yin forces asserting themselves and overwhelming the more retiring Yarn energies.

To correct this imbalance, I hereby submit evidence of some actual yarn and fiber-related activities here at Casa del Chaos:

Knitting!

Twist and Lace Scarf

Yarn: Lisa Souza Merino Sock!
Colorway: South Pacific
Pattern: Twist and Lace by Brenda Patipa (also available from Lisa Souza)
Progress: about 50%

I started this while on vacation in Ireland. This is a very easy to knit pattern. I think I’ll really enjoy wearing it once it’s done.

Leaf Lace Shawl

Glorified swatch....

Yarn: Lisa Souza Baby Alpaca Lace
Colorway: Olive Tones
Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Fiber Trends
Progress: Barely started (row 35)

This just came out of the Project Time-Out Closet last night. I frogged the whole thing and started over (due to the unequal size edge yarnovers). I’m happier with the new results.

I do wish I’d made a better needle selection. I’m using an Inox circular. The points are a bit dull and the join on the needle keeps catching the yarn. I went to my LYS today to get an Addi Turbo replacement, but once there I found that I had selected an odd size when I swatched. The Inox I’m using is a 2.75 mm and the Addi brand only came in 2.5 mm or 3.0 mm. I’m not ripping the shawl back again so I’ll just have to deal with the minor irritation of the current needle.


Spinning!

Clockwise from bottom right

Fiber: Winderwood Farms Blue Faced Leicester (BFL)
Colorway: Unknown
WPI: 14 wpi (appx) – slightly heavier than DK weight
Yardage: TBD

This wool was gifted to me by Lara. The color is a more vibrant in person than the photo shows. If I had this to do over again I would have spun this as a softly spun single to better showcase the gentle pastel colors.

ETA: I started spinning this at Black Sheep and finished it about a week later. That's about lightning speed for me and maybe even my best time ever (me: aka 'slowest spinner ever').

Fiber: Dicentra Designs BFL
Colorway: Longbottom Leaf
WPI: 16 wpi - about DK weight
Yardage: TBD

This is the fiber I started spinning back in April. I can’t remember when I finished it but it was before Black Sheep Gathering. I had planned to buy some more of this colorway at Black Sheep but Lisa didn’t have any and didn’t know if there would be anymore. It seems that Lisa dyes much like I cook – the dying equivalent of ‘dump and taste’ - so she wasn’t sure she had the ‘recipe’ needed to duplicate the roving. Darn! I’m not sure of the yardage at this point but it doesn’t look enough for much of anything.

Does the last one look familiar? No? It’s the yarn mascot – only now as a full-fledged finished yarn!

Fiber: Sweet Grass Wool Targhee
Colorway: Grass Valley Green (long since discontinued unfortunately)
WPI: Between 16 and 20 wpi
Yardage: TBD (are you sensing a theme here?)

Thanks to an excellent suggestion by my color guru, Angela, the yarn mascot is a vision in green, blue and purple tones complimented nicely by a charcoal grey lace weight commercial yarn used as the second ply. The finished yarn has a nice squishy-soft hand due to the sproingy* nature of the Targhee.

There seems to be plenty of yardage here (well, I haven’t actually calculated it, but it is a nice large skein)

I don't know about you but, my Chi/Qi feels better already!

*highly technical wool term