a smattering of colour ...

Recently I celebrated my birthday, which meant I was "allowed" to go out into the online world of Etsy and purchase from roving. I ordered some handpainted merino roving from FreckleFaceFibers, which I am stoked to say arrived today:

The above is colourway Safari, the below is colourway Frankincense.

I came face-to-face with the realization on Monday that I am not a true spinner yet. I have been looking for a certain colour of purple for the past month or so. The number of different "colourways" of "purple" is astounding. Let me just say, I am glad it is not my job to decide whether a ball of yarn is mauve vs. lavender vs. grape vs. the list goes on and on . . . Actually, I would love to be that person, but the point is: I was having a lot of difficulty finding the right colour of purple for a particular project that has been festering in the back of my mind for a while. On Monday, I was in the LYS and bumped into a friend from Knitting Group. I told her what I was looking for and she said "Why don't you spin the colour you want?" Duh.

The LYS that I tend to frequent has recently started selling roving. They happened to have the above bag sitting quite nicely on the shelf. It's Shades of Narnia from out in Chilliwack, BC, in the colourway Purple. So simple. So perfect. It's the colour I had been dreaming about!

Happy Spinning!

springtime bandit

I finished Kate Gagnon's Springtime Bandit this week. This pattern was a fast knit. The yarn was great for a summer knit - it's a light rayon (Berroco Softwist). I had used the same yarn for the Swallowtail Shawl, a birthday present for Mom. This was the "left overs" - and I have the same complaints about it: it splits badly while knitting.

I'm looking forward to wearing this through the summer in the evenings when it gets cool. I will definitely make this again. It's also a great pattern for someone wanting to tackle lace for the first time.

I'm off to Knit in Public Day now ... have a good Saturday - I hope it's sunny where you are!

the minstrel

I ordered an unfinished Kromski Minstrel after Fibres West back in March. It arrived through Canada Post in early April -- it has taken me over two months to put it together and get it working. Part of the reason for the major delay was waiting for stain to dry - I chose an oak stain which is my favourite wood. Although there isn't a lot of grain in the wood, the stain is still beautiful. The oak is more interesting than the clear stain (my original choice) as it has a beautiful golden finish.

M. and I put it together tonight - which was interesting as I have only spun on wheels completely assembled, M. has no understanding of spinning wheels, and I don't really understand the tensioning systems (yet). Needless to say - the wheel doesn't have the Scotch tension set up yet.

However, once I got the hang of playing with the tensioning screw, the wheel started spinning like a dream. Gorgeous. Except now I need to go buy some roving ...

I think patience paid off with this one. I am one happy knitter-turned-spinner!