Friday, September 09, 2005

Introducing Citrine!

(and reintroducing Pasha!)

You all already know Pasha.

I'd like to introduce to y'all Ms. Citrine - named after the orangy colored gemstone.

Pattern: From the Japanese book with ISBN 4391130122
Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun in Mango
Hook: USF5 (3.75mm)

That's right! Hook, not needle! I'm a Hooker now! ;) Continuing to branch out in my fiberly arts, I've now picked up crocheting in addition to knitting and spinning.

Comments: After learning the basics from a friend, I was cranking out kitty bits in a reasonably quick pace. A little bit of creativity was used in changing colors (being self taught and all, and not finding any direction in either of the two crochet books I have). Assembly of the kitty from the neck on down was wonderfully easy. I can't say the same for the head. I think I spent as much or more time working on Citrine's head as I did assembling the rest of her!

The first delay was in creating her muzzle - attaching her nose was no problem, but getting her mouth done took a few tries. Once complete, attaching her muzzle posed no difficulty. The next trial in frustration were her ears - I think I attached each ear at least twice. And the final bit of frustration was sewing on her eyes. I first tried french knots, so it would look like her eyes were open, after attempting several tries and not being happy with any of the results, I fell back to the line-shaped eyes as illustrated in the book. I never knew sewing two lines would be so difficult! Ah well, she's done now, and looking quite good, if I do say so myself :)

Friday, September 02, 2005

Waves of Mojave Red

Lookie lookie! My first attempts at plying!

You're viewing 70g (about 2.5 ounces) of hand spun yarn - sadly it's not 70g continuous....I had a small issue after plying 50g and the yarn broke

:(

Fiber Content: 100% fine merino from Ashland Bay (purchased through Fantasy Fibers at the Black Sheep Gathering)
Colorway: Mojave
Spindle: Mielke Emily Spindle

As you might be able to tell, I tend to spin rather finely - I probably should have put in a coin or something for reference...

Gratuitous close up....aren't the colors lovely? The hanks are currently having a soak to set the twist...I'll hang em to dry, then coil em for a proper photo.

In any case, the total yardage is just over 116 yards (106 meters) - with the larger 50g hank having 79 yards (72.5 meters) and the smaller 20g hank having the rest (almost 37 yards/34 meters)