Tag: merino

Batty about Batts

I got a gorgeous fiber batt at FiberTron the other weekend from Twisted Zisters. It was a mix of merino and silk in soft white, yellow, and burgundy reds.

Fab Fiber Batt

I’ve had a couple of Annettes batts before which I’ve played with and made some passably okay yarn from, and this time I wanted to really try hard to do it justice.

I did a lot of googling and decided my best plan of attack would be to break it up in to rolags. This was something new for me, so they’re probably not the best looking ones you might have seen…

I kind of decided to go a bit thick and thin with the spinning, which was lucky because it seemed like that’s what the fiber wanted as well!!

Then came the decision of what to do next. I didn’t feel like it would make a good single, but I also didn’t want to ply it on itself and loose any of the texture. So I dug out some left over burgundy/red HolstGarn Super Soft and decided to use that to ply with.

The result is 2 skeins of barber pole, almost art yarn like, DK (ish) weight wool.

Now I’m on the hunt for that ‘perfect’ pattern.

Tubular Top

My first tubular cast on.

Just when I think I’m getting past beginner knitter stage I learn another technique. It’s like knitting is the crafting rainbow, you think you’re getting closer to the pot of gold and it’s always just out of reach. 😁

It only took 4 goes to get it right… It probably didn’t help that the yarn is so beautifully silky and the needles are pretty big and both of those things are outside my comfort zone.

The yarn is a gorgeous 50 percent merino 50 percent silk from New Zealand indy dyer and designer Harnie Hoolie that I got at Unwind in Dunedin earlier in the year. And the cast on is the Ranunculus sweater (this link opens in Ravelry)

I’ve cast on as part of a small knit along I’ve joined. I’m unsure about the top, I have a feeling it might not suit me, but I hear its a really quick knit so I’m giving it a go.

Fabulous Fibre in the Mail (Gills spinning post)

Since we moved to Tauranga just over a week ago and are still unpacking I can’t really justify the 6 hour round trip this weekend to Kumeu to Fibre Fiesta to get a top up of fibre fabulousness, so I did a little bit of online shopping instead 🙂

Up until this purchase I have been pretty exclusive with my choice of New Zealand of indie dyers and fibres for spinning, so I don’t feel too guilty about buying merino from an international dyer, especially since I am supporting Cindy who is also a fab NZ indie dyer 🙂 I’m really looking forward to seeing how the Dye Candy spins (or more like – how well I can spin it!)

I also got 100 grams of different coloured Ashford corriedale from the Agridome in Rotorua a couple of weekends ago, watched some youtube videos, and on Sunday I made what might almost be artyarn.

I started with trying to wrap the fibre around a commercial yarn a technique called core spinning. I gave up pretty quickly though – it was so fiddly! I suppose my not being very practiced at drafting corriedale (I much prefer merino and alpaca) wouldn’t have helped!

I then went onto fat and thin spinning and trying to get some kind of a regular rhythm and pattern. This was a bit easier so I went with this for a while and then tried spiral plying it on to some silver glittery nylon that I got from spotlight. And the result is what you can see.

I think it’s okay for a first go, and It’s something I want to try more of, but I don’t like ‘wasting’ fibre (or yarn for that matter!) so I’m going to do it properly and I’ll be looking out for classes at the guild and at Creative Fibre so I can learn from a pro. And I really want to be able to do beehives, I spend way to long drooling over them pinterest 🙂