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Candelia Cardigan
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So I finished the Ashton Shawl last night. I decided to add an extra repeat to Chart 2 because I had more yardage than the pattern called for. I knew there wouldn’t be much yarn left, but I didn’t know how close it would be.
That tiny ball weighs .6 grams. Definitely not enough to knit 1 more row!
I haven’t finished anything recently, but here’s what I’m working on.
I’m spinning this fiber from Two If By Hand.
I love this part where it’s purple and teal and shiny!
The Honey Cowl is about halfway done.
And the Ashton Shawl looks like a hot mess at this point, but it’s almost done.
I spun a new type of wool last week called Targhee! 
This fiber felt so different than all the others I’ve spun so far. It almost didn’t feel like wool at all. The best way to describe it is sproingy. It was strange, but I would love to spin more of it.
I’m still trying to adjust my Woolee Winder so that it winds more evenly. I think it’s almost perfect.
The finished yarn is 187 yards of worsted weight 2 ply. It turned out rather dense feeling, and it’s not as soft as merino, so it would probably make a better hat than a scarf.
This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we took a mini-vacation to Arlington, TX and went to 3 Rangers Baseball games. Before the game on Friday, we stopped in Fort Worth to visit the Madelintetosh Yarn store. It just opened 2 weeks ago!
It was amazing to see so much Tosh yarn in one place! I will take pictures of what I bought later.
I did get a package before out trip, though. Last week I finally managed to catch a Fibernymph update!
This one had to be mine since it is exactly my favorite colors. 5 oz of 75% BFL, 25% Silk. It’s called Carrick’s Treasure.
This one is really bright, and it’s called Froot Loops! 4.25 oz of 75% BFL, 25% Silk.
My Candelia Cardigan is done! It fits really nicely. I was too lazy to alternate the skeins while knitting, so you can see that the sleeves and bottom are darker than the rest. It doesn’t bother me though. This used just over 2 skeins of Madeline Tosh Merino Light. I would probably knit this pattern again. 
When the cardigan was done, I spent a while thinking about what to knit next. After a couple days inspiration struck. I have some Skechers Mary Jane type shoes that I love to wear, but I don’t like wearing them without socks. Since it’s getting to be summer, my wool socks are too warm and cotton ones look stupid with the shoes. So I decided to knit some sock liners. I have some store bought ones that always end up slipping off my heel and sliding under my foot. There are a few patterns on Ravelry, but I figured it would be easy enough to just make up my own. Here’s what I came up with.
The pair took less that half a skein of sock yarn. I think they turned out really cute, and they stay on in my shoes.
Between finishing the cardigan and the socks, I spun up some more fiber. This is 100% Merino. 
Although it turned into a soft and fluffy yarn, the fiber was a pain in the ass to spin. It was slightly felted and matted together, so I had to do a lot of pre-drafting and fluffing in order to spin it. Because of that I spun it as quick as I could. It ended up being 182 yards of worsted weight yarn.
Now, I’m knitting another shawl. I know, really, how many shawls do I need? For some reason all I want to knit is lace. So I’m just gonna go with it. This might be a gift, though. The pattern is called the Ashton Shawlette. The yarn is Wollmeise Lace in the color Fliederbusch. 
Finally, a cat picture! Last weekend I watched my niece Greta for a few hours. She had a great time playing with Kisa’s toys. I think Kisa had fun playing with Greta’s stuff as well.
Silly cat.
I finished spinning and plying my Two If By Hand Merino/Cashmere/Silk fiber with my new Woolee Winder. The bobbin on the left is with the Woolee Winder. You can see how nicely it winds the fiber onto the bobbin.
Plying with the Woolee WInder was kinda challenging. I couldn’t get the tension right at first. It seemed like I needed to loosen it all the way because It was very grabby. Once, I got the hang of it though it went really fast. Also, I had a problem where it was winding to much yarn on to one end of the bobbin. I did some research and found that this is a common problem. I adjusted the traveling eye on the flyer which is supposed to fix it.
I ended up with 363 yards of a heavy fingering weight. It is so soft! I love cashmere!
One of my favorite yarn dyers had an update last week with a new yarn base. I needed a pick me up, so I bought a skein. This is Simple DK from Another Crafty Girl. The color is named Punky Brewster. I think that is a pretty descriptive name for it!
My Candelia cardigan is almost done. I finished knitting the body and the pockets. Now it needs sleeves, the neck edging, and sewing up the pockets and buttons.
Only took 2 weeks to get around to taking pictures. This is the Vostok Shawl, and it’s knit out of Dream in Color 50% wool/50% silk lace yarn.
The finished measurements are about 60” by 26”. 
I love it!
Last year I got my Ladybug spinning wheel.
This year I got a Woolee Winder! It is a new Flyer with gears and a moving arm that winds your yarn on the bobbin automatically. So instead of having to stop and change hooks, I can just keep spinning and spinning. It is supposed to make plying a lot faster and easier, too.
What I Bought:
Two If By Hand Fiber. Merino/Cashmere/Silk in the color Holly Holiday.
Two If By Hand Fiber. Merino/Cashmere/Silk in the color Potions Master.
Two If By Hand Fiber. Merino/Silk in the color Thunder Lightning.
Ozark Carding Mill. Alpaca/Bamboo/Silk in a blackish purple color.
Madeline Tosh Merino Light in the color Clematis. I got 4 skeins to make a cardigan.
Only 3 pictured because I cast on the cardigan with one skein before I took the picture. I didn’t realize that the Alpaca fiber was practically the same color as this yarn until afterwards!
I also bought this beaded bracelet kit. They told me it was easy enough for a beginner to make. We’ll see!
The cardigan I started is called Candelia. I love how it has pockets! The progress is slow going because I’m knitting on size 4 needles and the gauge is 6 stitches and 8 rows per inch.
I knit the border of the Vostok shawl for what seemed like an eternity, and only made it halfway though. But I powered through and finally finished it.
Here it is off the needles. It measures about 37” x 18” which is rather small, but after blocking it will be much bigger.
And this is during blocking. I pinned out every single one of those loops on the edging! It took almost 2 hours.
I really should order another set of blocking mats. Larger shawls just don’t fit on what I have now.
On Saturday, I went to the DFW Fiberfest! It was fun seeing all kinds of yarn and fiber and knitting supplies. I bought 3 braids of fiber from Two If By Hand.
The 1st and 3rd ones are Merino/Cashmere/Silk, and the 2nd one is just Merino/Silk.
The body of the Vostok Shawl is finished. Now, I’m knitting the border.
This part is taking forever! The 18 stitch border is knitted on perpendicular to the body of the shawl. Because you have to stop and turn your work all the time, it’s hard to get into a rhythm. There’s 780 rows of this, and I’m about 1/4 of the way done.
Yes, it’s the 2nd grey shawl this year, but this one is more of a silver color. Plus the shawl will be a semi-circle instead of a triangle.
The lace part here was tricky since there was lace on every row. I had to rip out a couple times. You do 5 repeats of this, increase a bunch of stitches, and then start the next lace section.
Here’s the finished BFL that I spun. It turned out to be a 3-ply worsted weight. I got about 355 yards. It would probably make a nice hat and scarf. 
It is done! I had to add more rows to the edge to use up all the yarn, but I like it with the deeper edging. Unfortunately, I could not capture all the shades of blue in the pictures. They show up much better in person. It blocked out to a nice size, too. It’s about 52” wide and 24” down the center.
Ok, so I wasn’t planning on buying anymore yarn until the end of the month when I go to the DFW fiber fest, but …
I saw this and had to get it!
It’s the March Dream Club yarn from Dream in Color. 1100 yards of 50% wool and 50% silk and it came with a gorgeous lace shawl pattern. I may have cast that on last night.
Also, I finished spinning the entire 8 ounces of the red fiber. I will try to ply it later tonight or tomorrow.
Only a few more color transitions and the Shaelyn shawl will be done!
Now for something surprising. Red!
This is the 1st fiber I’ve spun that is not purple or blue. It’s a nice change, but I’m sure I will be back to purple soon.
I hardly got to wear any scarves or knitted stuff this winter since it wasn’t really that cold. And now I have another one to wear. This is called the Brooklet Cowl. I used 2 different colors of Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere. Basically you knit a large tube, fold it in half, and seam up the side. It’s reversible and long enough to wrap twice around your neck.
After I finished this, I couldn’t wait any longer to knit with my gradient handspun. So I wound it up and cast on the Shaelyn shawl. I’ve actually had this pattern in my favorites for a long time. I think it will show off the color transitions nicely.
It turned out so nice! It’s the Fiber Optic Merino/Tencel gradient in the Ink to Aqua color. I learned how to Navajo ply which is tricky to start, but fun once you get the hang of it. I’m very impressed with the thinness and yardage I got. It turned out to be 430 yards of fingering weight. As soon as I find the perfect pattern, it will be a shawl. Although, right now, I’m happy having it out where I can stare at it.
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