Category: Fiber Arts Friday

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FAF – Spinning fun and Alpaca Cowl Pattern

What a long month of July.  No rain, intense heat, and lots of spinning for the Tour de Fleece.   Thankfully this year we got air conditioning! Yippy, so I managed to enjoy fiber in cool comfort instead of fighting with it sticking to me in sloppy humidity.

I present to you my collage of goodies that I worked on this past month.

Spinning wasn’t the only thing I did this past month.  I also managed to knit up a lovely cowl/ear warmer out of my very last ball of grey alpaca yarn.  All but 1 of my greys have sold and I’m keeping this cowl for myself in memory of them.  Thank you George, Gus and CoHo for the lovely warmth!

For those of you interested in this pattern.

Materials
200yrds DK weight
#7 8in round

Cast on:
100 stitches, place marker, knit 1st row

Pattern 4 row repeat:
K2, P2
K1, P2, K1
P2, K2
P1, K2, P1

Complete with extra stretchy bind off.  This is the one I used.

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FAF – Heat Wave

Well I’m a Fiber Arts Friday slacker this week.  Not that I haven’t been playing with fiber but I have not taken any photos of my work.

Right now I have a some alpaca/wool on my wheel that my MIL dyed a while back.  I’ve been saving it for Tour de Fleece.  I’ll spare you the artist renditions this time.

What I can show you is what is on my needles.  I’m still working away at the cowl when I’m not spinning.  Since TdF is taking most of my time I’ve been going very slowly at the knitting end of things but it is about 1/3-1/2 done.

Big thank you to everyone who suggested I learn the Norwegian Purl Stitch.   It has cut my slow knitting time in half if not more.  Here’s a short video of me with my new stitch.

Lastly here’s a photo of one of my dogs, Brindee, napping by the lake last week.  Oh what I wouldn’t give to be back up in the mountains right now with all this heat this week.

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FAF – How to thread beads to spin into yarn

Welcome back Fiber Arts Friday followers.

As many of you blog hoppers know this month is Tour de Fleece and with that comes challenge days where spinners try something new or a method they have been struggling with.  I was inspired by a post written by Wind Rose Fiber Studio and decided to learn how to spin beads myself.   Here is how I thread my beads for spinning.

Supplies:

Beads of your choice
Needle Threader
Fiber from the roving/bat you will be spinning from

Initially I used a beading needle and thread but I found the Needle Threader works SO much better and is a lot faster.

Step 1

Pop the bead on the threader

Step 2

Prepare a small bit of fiber

Step 3

Place thread a bit of fiber through the threader, don’t pull too far on.

Step 4

Pull the bead over the threader and onto the fiber

Step 5

Move the bead to the center and fluff up the ends

Now you have your threaded beads ready to spin into your single!

TIP! When spinning the bead into your single keep a bit of fiber on the outside of the bead to hold it into place.  Wind Rose has a great photo of what I’m talking about… Click Here for Photo

Calling all Team of Wonder Tour de Fleece Participants!
Enter to Win!

Share photos of you threading beads with fiber or spin up a small sample of beaded yarn on the Team of Wonder TdF thread to win.

Winner gets 60 pre-threaded glass beads on alpaca/wool as well as 2 oz of the matching roving.   Glass bead color choices, purple, green, black, purl, or a funky brown metallic like shown in the photo below.

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FAF – Ready for Tour de Fleece

Tomorrow July 2nd starts Tour de Fleece and I’m ready!

I’ve been dying fiber and threading beads in preparation for a month of spinning.  Once again I’ve joined in the fun with the Team of Wonder!  Yippy! I’ll also be sponsoring a price for the team this year.  Stay tuned next week for what it will be!

I also joined up on the Spinolution team since my wheel of choice is their Echo model.  I love this wheel, it’s small enough that it fits in my car so I can take it with me on trips.

Lastly I couldn’t keep my hands off my spinning wheel and worked up 2 skeins and dyed them last weekend.  The darker one is a 2 ply sport weight and the lighter one is a silver beaded single ply.  Both are alpaca/wool blends just like the rovings you see above.   Both are for sale in our Etsy Shop.

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FAF: Alpaca Fan Shawl DONE!

No more artistic renditions, this is the final alpaca fan shawl!  I still haven’t blocked it yet but you get the idea of what it’ll look like.  When blocked the mesh boarder will be more pronounced and the triangle fan pattern will be more even and noticeable.  I’m thinking of adding more fringe.  Right now I put them in every other mesh space.  I’m thinking I’d like more or would that be too much?  Thoughts?

Alpaca Shawl

Alpaca Shawl

I also retrieved the photo of what’s on my wheel right now.  Alpaca/Merino blend that I’m aiming for a 2ply DK weight when done.

Last but not least the huge granny triangle I started and finished this week on my lunch breaks.  I’m thinking I’m going to use it as a swimsuit wrap since the green matches my suit so nicely!

Crochet Granny Swim Wrap

So what have you been up to this week?

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