design | Woolen Diversions

Audry asked an excellent question in the comments of my last post about what my handspun yarn will grow up to be. It appears that I tend to spin like I knit: in fits and starts, with many, many works-in-progress, that take quite a while to come to fruition. I have been spinning since January 2012 and over the last 2.5 years I’ve completely finished spinning 17 full skeins of yarn (one skein = 2-6 oz, depending on project) and 14 little ‘test’ or sample skeins (10 from my spinner’s study and 4 from trying out new tools or experimenting).

Some of my more recent finished skeins (since October 2013).

And then, of course, I have 12 spinning WIPs (eek). One on each of my spindles, two that are resting off of my spindles, and the remaining are wheel projects in various stages of completion (why yes, I am out of bobbins, how did you guess?). The things I could accomplish with just a little more follow-through would be pretty amazing, amIright?!

All of my handspun projects to date!

Of my 17 full-size finished skeins, I have (at least partially) knit up 10 of them, have a hibernating WIP with the 11th, and gave 2 of them away as gifts. That leaves me with 4 unaccounted-for skeins.

Four skeins of handspun waiting to be knit…

In the top left, we have the lovely skein of alpaca/silk I carded on a rented drum carder and finished spinning in April. It will most likely grow up to become a Morning Surf Scarf, when I get a chance to knit more regularly (read: post-wedding).

The two skeins in the top right were from a spin-along last quarter. They are a generous 550 yards of 2-ply BFL wool destined to become a shawl. I’ve been eyeing up Joji’s The Way From Brighton, what do you think?

The skein on the bottom left is some more BFL, this time around 170 yards of DK-weight chain-plied yarn. I was thinking of some sort of hat, perhaps a Jango designed by Svetlana Volkova. I’d use it for the main color and then alternate some scraps for the contrast colors. Not sure yet, though. I like the neutral used in the pattern photo and I might want to pair my skein with a calmer color and knit a two-color shawl or cowl instead.

The final skein pictured is the last skein that I knit into a finished object way back in October 2013 (siiiiigh). I knit that fluffy little 4-ply Merino skein into a pretty fabulous hat. What are your favorite handspun projects? I’d love to see what you’ve made with yours or what you’ve been dreaming of making. Share a link or leave a comment below!

I had both a very productive and very relaxing birthday weekend. The Fiasco and I fled work early on Friday, made the best of a rather appalling B&B, then visited my parents and spent quality time hanging around the house, watching Johnny Depp on DVD (Lone Ranger was pretty good!), playing a Big Bang Theory trivia game, and shopping at Lush (my new non-yarn obsession). During all that I managed to also mail out lotion samples to testers, send along the questionnaires, and finish chemo cap for my mom.

Old-school SG Bugga, colorway Lord of the Flies. Click for project page.

Those following me on Instagram will know that I wasn’t sure if I would finish this hat in time to leave it with my mom or not, considering I only began it Wednesday night. However, I finished it in the nick of time after just 5 days of intermittent knitting! The pattern is the Loch hat by TinCanKnits and it makes a nice, close-fitting beanie using sportweight yarn.

My lovely mom.

The hat is shown here not yet blocked, I finished it moments before we needed to get on the road and head home so I can’t speak to the shape/size of the hat after blocking, but I already plan to knit one for myself and will likely be able to judge better then. My mom thinks this hat will fit her newly-shaved head perfectly and be great to wear indoors since it is lightweight, soft, and lacy. Bugga, with its cashmere content and subtle variegation, plays perfectly with this pattern. This is the 1st of 14 Sanguine/Verdant Gryphon projects I will be attempting to finish in 2014.

In other (exciting!) news, I was interviewed by a fellow Indie #Giftalong designer on the Redtigerdesigns blog, go check it out! Be sure to also check out Cynthia’s designs on Ravelry, she’s created some really fabulous socks!

Hope you all had great weekends, too!