Fiber Update Overload

I have a bunch of Finished Objects (FOs) to share with y’all. Some have been gifts, so I haven’t been able to share until recently.

First up is the top down seamless kimono sweater that I made for Nadia. The yarn is a bamboo/alpaca blend that is super soft with a lovely drape and sheen. I still need to block it BUT I don’t think I’m going to bother. She doesn’t like to wear it and I’m not too keen on the kimono aspect of it. The ties bug us both and I need to sew buttons.

This isn’t a garment that she needs in Florida and I just don’t feel that it’s good enough to gift to someone else. So I think I’m going to frog it and make a sleeveless dress for her instead. For my first sweater ever it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

You’ll notice on the sweater there is a felted flower pin. I made that for my grandmother for her 81st birthday.

Up next are my very FIRST pair of two-up, two-at-a-time, magic loops socks. This was a fun and challenging pattern. I’m not sure how I feel about the yarn – it’s Happy Feet which is not as expensive as some sock yarn, however, if I were to become one of those knitters who knits a lot of socks I think I’ll need to find a nicer base yarn for my projects. These were for my mom for Mother’s Day.

More on the sock front – I made these for my sister (pattern from a sock book that I can’t recall the name of right now) for her birthday and I got them out to her just a day or two late. Yarn was kettle-dyed Essential yarn from knitpicks and it was nice but (there it is again) I think some fancier sock yarn will be needed for future socks.
The toes aren’t crooked – I just put them on twisted when I was trying to snap a quick pic.

Currently in progress (UFO – haha) is a Spider-Man hat for Jonah. The kid is obsessed with Spider-Man. He’s getting nothing from us but Spider-Man stuff this year and I think he’ll be in little boy heaven.

In regards to spinning fiber, I’ve been a busy, busy bee. I had a brief flirtation with a Hitchhiker Wheel that I bought via craigslist. I thought it would be perfect for me. It’s portable, easy to store and many people have said that they can make anything from bulky to laceweight on it. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t the wheel for me.

I think that if you have some experience with spinning and you have a good, solid wheel at home, then the Hitchhiker is a great travel wheel. But since this was going to be my ONLY wheel and because it does have so many “quirks” that one needs to adjust to, it just wasn’t the time for me to own this wheel. I sold it a few days later on Ravelry. So long, Hitchhiker, I hardly knew ye.

I was spinning some lovely BFL combed top from Knit Knackers up in Ottawa. It’s all finished now and as soon as I’m done knitting up Father’s Day socks I’m going to knit myself a pair of socks with this yarn.

I had a great time spinning a fabulous BFL batt from my friend, Marilla. No photo right now but it’s an aqua green color with sparkles and super soft smooshiness. That was spun with the idea of socks too – maybe yoga socks.

Right now I’m spinning up a soft and light grey batt of BFL and mystery fiber (I think it’s Corriedale) for Peter’s Father’s Day socks. One skein has been washed and finished and the second skein is waiting to be rinsed and dried. Photos coming soon!

The wonderful person who is loaning me her Ashford Traditional just brought her Majacraft Suzie over yesterday so I could play. This is a swanky, lovely wheel and I thought that if I tried this one, then all other wheels wouldn’t be good enough for me which would be super bad for my wallet.

Things were going smoothly until I tried to change the drive band to a different ratio. Now the drive band keeps slipping and it’s making me a bit crazy. Maybe she and I have just gotten off on the wrong foot? I have a few more weeks to practice and to see if I can get things to even out. 5oz of fiber should about do it, right?

And finally, my latest project was a nuno felted scarf. Nuno felting is when you felt fiber to a open weave fabric. It was quite a bit of fun but I think the scarf I had made it more difficult than it needed to be. Apparently, silk gauze is the best fabric for this and I think my scarf was organza – much more difficult to felt fiber to. I’ll try to needle felt the parts that didn’t completely attach and see if that helps.

Because the fulling causes the scarf itself to shrink, I don’t think that this will end up being something that anyone can wear. It is quite lovely, however, as a small table runner.

I have 3 rolls of 220 film that are judging me severely for not having yet developed them. It’s on my list to do this week. Hopefully I’ll have some more b/w film photos coming up soon. Yay for you if you managed to make it this far!