She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. --Proverbs 31:13

3/10/2006

The baby sweater is almost finished. I am really pleased so far, but still need to find a button or two, and finish the cuffs on the sleeves. All in all though, it has turned out pretty much as I thought it would, other than the collar. I planned on doing just a plain collar, but choose a shawl collar instead, and I really like how cozy it makes the sweater look. Of course, it's a very small shawl collar, I don't know how much fun that would be to knit for a full size sweater. Still haven't decided what to do with the cuffs on the sleeves either, but I have until after school and cleaning at the church to figure out what to do.

The reason I am not completely done with the sweater is because I have been compelled to play with my clean wool! I combed and carded some of each, and then spun it up, trying to decide which preperation I was going to use.( I mean, it isn't like I have anything else at all to do, no Shetland to dye and blend, or a sweater to finish for a baby shower on Saturday or anything)

The clear winner in this contest is the combed top spun into a nice worsted yarn. It is so smooth and glossy. I can't wait to put some dye to these and see what happens. I also might combine the white and the charcoal grey on some of it to get a lighter grey. The grey is so dark I think it would be hard to knit with. If you prepare it on the drum carder, you get a lot of neps and little pieces that stick off and look like they would pill the first time you washed the fiber. Combing gets rid of all the short pieces and trash.

Finally, pictures of Ivy's fleece...thought you might like to see it. It's amazing to me that none of those brown ends show up in the finished yarn, for some reason. That's not dirt, that is just the color she was when she got here. Margaret (who gave me Ivy and Tootles) told me that she would probably turn white, that that breed often does, so I was really glad that she only turned that charcoal color. I know there is one breed of sheep that gets lighter and lighter every year, but I don't know which one it is, or if they all do that. It'd be cool though to have a different color of fleece every year without having to buy a new sheep. That's all for today, I have a ton of stuff to do. Hope you all have a good weekend.  Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jan,

I spent the night at work reading your blog. I read the whole thing. I love your pictures. You are so talented. Your yarn is so pretty. talk to you soon.

Love,
Jody

Tracy Batchelder said...

I like the shawl collar on the baby sweater. It's one of my favorite looks.

The whole process of transforming the fleece into yarn is very interesting. I think combining some of the white with the charcoal would make a beautiful yarn. I hope you give it a try.