Tag Archives: southern cross fibre

Winter is Coming Spinalong :: Annunciation

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At the end of the year, I finished up my third (and final) spin for the Winter is Coming Spinalong (in the Southern Cross Fibre Ravelry group). Considering themes and images as inspiration for my spinning is a new way of doing things for me, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

For this spin, I chose “Bloodstone” on Superwash Merino:
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I absolutely adore this colorway – so deep and rich.

Initially, I thought of its resonance with winter fires, or with red Christmas decorations, but in the end, I was drawn to something altogether different. It was an icon of the Annunciation – Gabriel’s visitation to Mary – a story I get to read at our church’s Christmas Eve service every year. I loved the particular depiction I found (which I won’t post here because I don’t own the rights to it), because Mary is holding yarn. It’s red yarn. In some icons, she is depicted as spinning (and, in at least one, even knitting). In this one, she has dropped her yarn to listen to the angel. What’s more, she’s also wearing red socks. Okay, maybe they are shoes. But I like to imagine that they are socks. I also like to imagine that they are handknit handspun socks, that she made for herself. The deep red really enchants me. I wanted some for myself, so I spun up the yarn.

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The spinning itself was a total delight. The chain-plying was another story entirely. I’ve been having trouble with my chain-plying lately, and I don’t know what the problem is. I ended up with more twist and less yardage than I’d hoped. I actually ran it back through the spinner to take out some of the twist, and that helped (though it didn’t increase the yardage, of course).

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I think I need to go back to one of my wheels for chain-plying, because I do believe that part of the issue is my electric spinner tempts me to go faster than is wise. That works fine for regular plying, but not for chain-plying. But even on the wheel, I struggle with consistency in my chain-plies. I am very, very interested in hearing any words of wisdom from those who have this process a little more down pat. What advice would you give me?

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Even with my plying issues, it’s hard for me not to love this yarn. The color is so deep and luscious (which I didn’t capture very well in these photographs). I’m looking forward to knitting it up!

 

Winter is Coming, Second Spin

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It was Tuesday, and I blinked, and then suddenly it was Friday. I’m sure I’m not the only one trying to find that sweet spot between Getting It All Done and Enjoying the Moment. It’s a tough balance to find any time of year, but especially as we move further into this season.

Waking early for quiet time to think and create is one thing that really helps me find my breath. The fact that I end up with something beautiful to show for that time alone is quite a nice bonus!

Last month, I told you about the Winter is Coming Spin-along in the Southern Cross Fibre Ravelry group. I’ve had a lot of big plans for this, but the spin-along will be up in two weeks and I’m realizing I’m not going to make everything I dreamed of. But I did finish my second yarn this week.

With this spinalong, I’ve been experimenting with using pictures as inspiration to guide me in the process of spinning. It’s been really fun! For this spin, I used this picture for inspiration:

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That’s Jon Snow’s direwolf “Ghost” (from Game of Thrones), and I adore this picture. It seemed a nice match to the Southern Cross Fibre October Classic Club offering:

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I love those luscious colors so much! This is Comeback Wool, an Australian wool I’ve never spun before. It was a total delight.

Ordinarily, I would just spin this up and ply it with itself, with my biggest decision being whether to have it barberpole or line up the colors. But this time, inspired by the picture of Ghost, I really wanted to add a significant amount of white to the finished yarn. So I ordered some undyed Falkland from Spunky Eclectic and spun that up. Then I plied it with the October Showers. I had 4 oz. of the October Showers and 3 oz. of the Falkland – I had uneven amounts because my original idea was to use an undyed grey fiber in there as well. So I ordered 1 oz. of an Icelandic blend in a natural grey from Spunky Eclectic. The color was great, but the feel of the fiber was so different from either the Comeback or the Falkland, that I ended up deciding not to use it.

With an uneven amount of fiber, I decided to ply a small portion of the Comeback Wool with itself. So when I ran out of the Falkland, I wound the Comeback with my yarn winder into a center-pull yarn cake and plied one end with the other, which yielded a nice long streak of lavender at the end of the yarn.

Enough shop talk! Here’s the final product:

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This is 7.25oz, 362yds worsted 2-ply, and I love it.

I’ve been toying with the idea of plying it one more time – chain-plying it for a really fat 6-ply. But I’m torn, because I also really like it as it is. So … we’ll see!

As I’ve been writing this, snow started to fall, hard. Maybe, after these strange couple of weeks of record high temperatures, maybe winter is coming after all!

 

Warped

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Got ‘er warped and the weaving has commenced. It feels really good after a hiatus of several months to be back at the loom. I would say more, but there’s weaving to be done! 

For a Little Fashionista (Handspun In Threes Cardi)

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Earlier this year, I did what is for me a nearly unprecedented thing – I finished a handknit present a whole six weeks before the gift-giving occasion. This feat was made even more remarkable by the fact that I also spun the yarn up first. I then made up for this extraordinary punctuality by waiting more than half a year to blog about it.

I think I did show you the yarn last spring, but just in case not, here ’tis:

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This is Southern Cross Fibre “Dragon Fruit” on Bond/Silk, the February 2015 Club Offering (my first SCF club!). I spun it up as soon as I received it, and it was a dream. I ended up with 252 yards DK 2-ply, perfect for a toddler cardigan.

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This picture doesn’t do justice to those juicy colors. Oh YUM, I love them.

The knitting was fast and easy, and one week later, I was done:

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This is the In Three Cardigan, and it was a very sweet knit. After finishing up, I had enough yarn to crochet this precious Flower Accent, perfect for embellishing the sweater or attaching to a headband. I found some gorgeous green bakelite buttons from Sewing Vineyard on Etsy.

The sweater was for my great-niece, on the occasion of her first birthday. I made the 12-month size but with a slightly bigger gauge, figuring it would fit for fall.

And it did…

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Oh mercy, y’all. She is KILLING ME with the cute! And those grey boots!!! With those jeans! There may be nothing I love more than seeing someone I love wearing something I made for them. And when one of them looks this good in it, it just makes my heart explode.

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Saturday Spinning

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I have a new favorite fiber, y’all. It is Eider Wool and it seems very similar to Shetland, but with maybe a little more poof after washing.

 

Southern Cross Fibre “Water” on Eider


David (of Southern Cross Fibre) is a genius with color, as you can we’ll see.

This is 226 yards of DK-weight 2-ply, and I’m extremely pleased with it.

  
I’m planning to use it as weft for a scarf I’m going to weave, with some Hello Yarn Kent Romney Lambswool as warp:

  
I’m pretty excited about this project and hope to get to warping it soon!

Handspun Sisterhood Stretcher (Quaker Yarn Stretcher)

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Last month, thanks to a cancelled flight and some reshuffling, I had some extra hang time in airports on my way to Rhinebeck. It seemed to me the perfect time to cast on for something new.

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I had packed this skein of my own handspun – the first yarn I spun after my mother’s unexpected death, after weeks of not feeling like knitting, spinning, or doing anything I usually enjoyed. The yarn felt special to me, a symbol of hope and comfort as I began to try to emerge from those early dark days of devastation.

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Southern Cross Fibre Organic Merino, “Laurel Crown”

It was so deeply satisfying to knit with this particular yarn, in our cabin in Red Hook, surrounded by a circle of friends. As I’ve already written, the time with these women was nourishing and healing and strengthening, and just so, so good.

On our last night together, I bound off the project I’d started on the way there.

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It was a fast and thoroughly enjoyable knit, extremely easy and perfect for travel. The pattern is the Quaker Yarn Stretcher, a free pattern designed for using a single skein of handspun (it can be adapted to be bigger or smaller depending on your yardage).

The simplicity and texture really show off the beauty of handspun.

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I enjoyed every stitch, and now that it’s done, I love wearing it too.

It’s like a little piece of Rhinebeck I brought home with me, the hours of laughter and stories from knitter-sisters stitched into it.

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When I put it around my shoulders, I feel wrapped in sisterhood, which really helps these days.

Also, it’s just pretty!

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It is rare to find a pattern that is so deeply satisfying in both the knitting and the wearing. It’s so functional too – perfect as a scarf, it also works up easily in more yarn as a shawlette or shawl. I would highly recommend this pattern, and I will almost certainly be knitting this again.

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Winter is Coming (A Spinalong)

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Snow is coming down hard here today, and I would love nothing more than to just curl up with coffee and crafts and be cozy all day. But today is a writing day for me (so, a different kind of crafting, plus there will still be coffee). At the end of the day, I hope to get back to this:

This is my current spin-in-progress, Southern Cross Fibre “Winter” on Eider. I’ve never spun Eider before, but I’m finding it quite similar to Shetland, which is to say, I LOVE IT.

I’m participating in the November/December spinning challenge in the Southern Cross Fibre forum on Ravelry. The theme is “winter is coming.” Here’s my photo inspiration for this spin:

A long winter’s night, featuring the same gorgeous deep blues, purples, and greens in this fiber. I’m spinning this up to become the weft for a winter scarf, so that’s in keeping with the wintry theme as well.

I hope you are staying cozy and warm, and enjoying a happy weekend.

Just keep spinning

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To be without the ability to knit right now has been truly difficult for me. But I am so grateful that I can still spin.

On Friday, I finished this:

   
Southern Cross Fibre Shetland in “Beltane,” chain-plied for socks for one of my sons. This would be for a Christmas present but I doubt I’ll have enough time to knit them after I get out of this splint.

 
But the yarn is ready when I am!

Then Friday night, I watched the third Lord of the Rings movie with the youth at my church. It is so long that I managed to spin an entire four ounces during it. And the movie still wasn’t done!
I started with this:  
 Southern Cross Fibre Bond in “Esmerelda,” picked by my other son for slippers (which would also be for Christmas if my hand weren’t  broken).

  
I spin it as a fat 2-ply, and I love how it turned out.

To paraphrase from a certain fish we all know: When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep spinning, just keep spinning, just keep spinning, spinning, spinning.