Haruni

I wrote in July that Blue Faced Leicester became a favourite for spinning. It also turned out to be very nice to knit. I knew that I had to try it out in a project that uses s-plied yarn, so Twined Knitting was out of the question. There are a number of shawl patterns that I have had my eyes on, planning to knit when I get a craving for lace-knitting. The one that I chose this time was Haruni by Emily Ross (yes I know it is ages since it was released but I don´t do a lot of lace knitting so I don´t keep up ...).

I do recommend this pattern, it knitted up fairly quick and it wasn´t too difficult. I made two extra repeats of Chart A to get a somewhat bigger shawl - the finished result is 188 cm  x 95 cm (75 inches x 38 inches). I used all but 5 grams of my hand spun Blue faced Leicester.

There will be more spinning and more lace knitting with BFL in the future!

One more Boneyard

Chestnutty Boneyard
I bought this yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It is handdyed Blue Faced Leicester and the colourway is called Chestnutty.

I didn´t want to knit something "complicated", just make something where the yarn came to be "in center". So I knitted yet one more Boneyard (design by Stephen West). This time I made 50% more increases in the first 2/3 of the shawl to get a shape that was more "rounded" - I think that it came out pretty much as I had hoped.

It has a very soft and luxurious feel to it, and my guess is that it will leave us rather soon for one of my relatives (as is the case with most of the shawls that I knit).

Blue Faced Leicester - A Favourite

This vacation my last spinning project was Blue Faced Leicester Tops.

It is hard to explain how nice this was to spin. A real joy. I will definitely spin more of this. This time I chose to spin in Z (on the Majacraft Little Gem) and ply in S (on Louet S10). 300 grams. Actually, this is the first S-plied yarn that i have spun. So I will not use it for Twined Knitting. It will most likely end up as a scarf or a shawl.

All in all I have spun 1050 grams of yarn this vacation. It could be said to be crazy - but I needed to practice spinning! It is relaxing ... and it is a nice feeling to knit something out of your own handspun yarn.

And we have been very lucky with the weather,  with warm days and lots of sun. So I have been sitting outside spinning - no way I was going to spend my vacation indoors.

Z-plied Handspun

Here are two more examples of yarn spun this vacation:

A total of 360 grams.
After sorting and washing the wool, I mixed grey Spelsau from Norway with white Leicester (50/50) by hand carding.
After that I spun (grey) singles in S and plied in Z. Washed the yarn. Dyed it red. Washed again.

This yarn  is for twined knitting and I´ll probably make some more. I think it will be a good yarn for socks.

120 grams of green yarn out of very mixed fiber spun on my Majacraft Little Gem.
Not a pleasant experience to spin (some of it was very low quality with lots and lots and lots and lots of cuts) - but I had decided to see this through. It is spun in S and plied in Z, so it will join my handspun stash for twined knitting. It will be useful …

Making yarn

This vacation I have spent a lot of time making yarn - spinning. Here are some photos showing the process of sorting, mixing, carding, spinning, plying and then the finished yarn.