Micamynx's Blog

I have been knitting

micamynx — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:37:25 +0000

I want to bust out the dyes!

micamynx — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:37:36 +0000

All this lovely weather and sunny skies has me jonesing to dye some fiber. Unfortunately work has kept me from the dye pots. But hopefully soon. My friend Kim even sent me some undyed Wensleydale to try out. I love spinning Wensleydale, but I have not dyed it before. I also haven’t managed to knit any yet.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity, including prom for the 16 year old—

I got some awesome socks from Megan in MN (I knit her a shawl-she knit me socks) They are made from Bugga in Breyer’s Scarab Beetle. Yes, it is yarn named after various bugs. But it is scrumptious. It has 20% cashmere, unlike the usual MCN’s that have 10% cashmere so it is cuddly soft and the colors are amazing.

Arbitrary house photo….my favorite part of the kitchen

Close-up of the Wollmeise lace in “Orient”-tons of stockinette stitch, but I think it will be a lovely cardigan at some point-

And my first spin of Jacob wool. This is some mixed Jacob, dyed by the talented and super nice David of in the April club colorway “Charred”. I enjoyed the spin, but Jacob is a bit scratchy for my tastes.

I need some fiber time!

micamynx — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:30:14 +0000

Seriously! This week has flown by and I have been busy with everything but fiber stuff. I did manage to start an eyelet yoke baby cardigan out of that gorgeous pink Madelinetosh Merino Lite

I also spun some yummy BFL/Silk from FatCatKnits This is the spin-a-long colorway Henry. On the bobbin:

And chain plied-356 yards of fingering weight

Odds & Ends

micamynx — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:02:55 +0000

I love Shetland for shawls. It has just enough halo to looks soft, yet has gorgeous stitch definition and blocks beautifully! Look at this edging:

Wound up this skein of Madelinetosh Merino Lite yesterday and started a little eyelet yoke baby cardigan:

The colorway is “Molly Ringwald”…doesn’t get much more girly than that, eh?

I am off to a legal seminar for the next few days. No spinning, but plenty of knitting time.

Color progression shawl fail

micamynx — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:06:10 +0000

Not totally a fail because the shawlette is really pretty, but I ran out of shawl before I got to the last color in the color progression skein. Oops. I probably should have figured out how do a few more repeats of the pattern before the edging, but the designer had actually cautioned against such a thing in a Ravelry thread. That cautionary advise combined with my own ability to mess up math calculations with wild abandon and my inherent laziness made me knit to pattern.

Here is a blocking photo of the shawl with the leftover yarn (see the blue???)

Here is a link to the shawl/shawlette pattern by the Sexy Knitter

Storms headed this way

micamynx — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:54:43 +0000

At least that is what weather.com says. It made me think of this yarn:

244 yards of superluscious merino/cashmere/silk in the “Tempest” colorway. It really needs to be knit…but into what?

Spinning is better than chores.

micamynx — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:10:25 +0000

I had a ton of busy things to do today, but I managed to squeeze in some photos of my spinning efforts-

The Hedgehog Fibres superwash merino got plied. I nplied it into this gorgeous fingering weight.

I love Hedgehog Fibres in general. Her yarns are lush and gorgeous and her fibers are sublime. The superwash merino is so soft & shiny that it feels like merino/silk when spinning.

I also plied some Rogue Adventures merino with some The Plucky Knitter superwash merino. I have had both of these for awhile and finally realized that they matched each other perfectly. I used a single of each and chain plied with the 2 singles held together.

It makes a fat, bulky round yarn that is nice & light.

And I snagged this BFL/Silk braid that I dyed out of my shop (it hadn’t sold, so it got spun!)

I spun it in a color progression & nplied it for 372 yards of light fingering weight.

Hodgepodge

micamynx — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:46:08 +0000

Yesterday I went about photographing various knitting & spinning & crochet projects strewn about my house. I also took some photos of some of my favorite things in my house. Ergo, hodgepodge.

The Shetland singles becoming a shawl:

Dining room chair I re-covered

Sunspot Rico

Tin by front door that I desperately want to fill with something!

Love this plate, the Cabo vase & my witch ball from my first law office

Yoke of nearly finished preemie cardigan, complete with homemade yarn button

Go to socks on coffee table

Striped alpaca blanket on couch (I knit this in bulky alpaca yarn in a basketweave pattern and then slightly felted it-it is so soft, but no longer unbearably sheddy)

Crochet with leftover handspun yarns. I keep making these medallions and squares and strips thinking that one day they will become a scrap afghan

A bobbin of superwash merino singles (Hedgehog Fibres) resting on the bobbin before plying

Spinning lately

micamynx — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:44:48 +0000

Some of the latest spins and plans for them:

600 yards of Shetland singles from Southern Cross Fibre, Club fiber “Island Paradise”. Currently knitting into a Limeade Fizz Shawl-a new pattern by the Sexy Knitter.

This is 200 yards of fat squishy yumminess:

It is mixed merino from BeeMiceElf in the club colorway “Beloved Bard”. I spun it into a chain plied 6 ply by holding 2 singles together as I plied. It is a nifty trick for making thicker yarn with thin singles. I think it is probably destined to be a hat or some squishy mittens.

I have become enamored of true 3 plies lately too.

Like this one in Southern Cross Fibre, “Paua” in Falkland, 310 yards. Destined for socks.

Finally, check out this one-it’s a chain ply Polworth, but it is one of my own dye jobs:

April already, really?

micamynx — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:50:00 +0000

Imagine my chagrin when I noticed that my last blog post is entitled “Blog Neglect ends now”….erm months ago! Pathetic.
What’s up in my fibery little world? I have still been dyeing, spinning & knitting…with my usual little odd crochet projects thrown in for good measure. For some reason I never actually finish a crochet project. Weird. Here are some of the recent projects—

Even more hanspun Ringwood gloves

A handspun shawl using various odds & ends of different handspun:

Another handspun shawl–in my own dyed Finn-

And a stunning stole–from the new Interweave Knits magazine-the yarn is handspun, a lovely aplaca/merino/silk blend from AllSpunUp.