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My Nutiden arrived earlier this week, and I’ve been having a lot of fun getting to know it.

The colors do vary a just a bit in texture and weight, but they are all beautifully soft and lofty.

Here are some more photos to give you a closer look

The individual fibers are fairly short staple for the most part (2″ or less) and it gets a lovely heathery look from a blend of colors, including darker fibers which I think are natural colored.

Here is a swatch that I knit out of that same color. The top bit is a single strand, and the bottom half is two strands.

The gauge between the two is not too different, but the single strand is much more open and fragile feeling. You can get a better sense of the difference by seeing the swatch held up to a light.

Doubled, the yarn handles much more easily and knits up into a really light and lofty fabric (4 stitches/in) that feels quite stable and substantial.

I’ve decided to use the Nutiden varieties to begin a top down raglan sweater- starting with the blue. Its a little tricky to cast on with the unspun alone, and since the neckline is something that will take a bit of wear and tear, I’ve decided to use one strand of the Nutiden and a handspun single of indigo dyed homegrown wool (can’t remember exactly who it came from)

I think that once I get through the blue, I might start working in a double strand of Nutiden and see how far that gets me. Once I run out of Nutiden, I’m going to carry on with wool from the stash, carded and dizzed (is that a word?) down to a comparable weight to the doubled up Nutiden.

The unspun Daphne sample I worked up a couple weeks ago is a little heavier than the doubled Nutiden, so I’ll have to reduce it a bit yet, but I think I can get there-

I think that a plain vanilla top down raglan will be a fun canvas for playing with the colors and textures- and it’s nice to have something substantial on the needles again!

My other sweet treat this week is quince! (acquired from Schoonover Farm, since out tree once again did not produce any fruits )

Made a batch of Membrillo (quince paste) yesterday- and really excited about how it turned out. The color is just gorgeous. (and the recipe linked above is really easy)

Since I had enough quince to make a batch and a half or so, I decided to take the extra half and dehydrate it some to make it into quince candy.

So looking forward to trying it. I do love fruity sweets.

Have a great week everyone- and a happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve been fascinated recently by a type of unspun yarn called Nutiden.

It’s made in Sweden, of Swedish wool, and comes in some amazing, subtle blended dyed colors, as well as naturals. But it’s only sold in their online shop, and batches appear to sell out very quickly. It’s a very fine continuous strip of carded fiber, put up in disks.

Folks who work with it seem to love it, but I was hesitant to place an order and incur overseas shipping charges and all, when it occurred to me that maybe I could find some (relatively) locally (in the US).

And through the miracle of Ravelry search functionality, I was able to do just that!

I’ve never been organized enough to document my yarn stash in any detail on the platform, but some people do, and even list yarns that they are open to selling or trading. I was able to find someone in the PNW who had some Nutiden in various colors left over from prior projects. Huzzah!

I’m so excited about trying it out. Swedish sheep, coming to visit me! 🙂 I want to check out the characteristics of the fibers (length, fineness, crimp).

But I have to admit that a lot of my interest in the Nutiden is seeing if I can figure out how I can create a very similar yarn from my own wools.

Hopefully I’ll have the Nutiden samples sometime soon, but in the meantime, I’ve been playing around with a makeshift diz

Smallest orifice I’ve used as a diz so far- buttonhole measures about 1mm. To get the Daphne fibers started a needle threader worked nicely. And the resulting roving-

Amazing how many fibers can pass through a 1 mm hole!

It is still quite a bit heavier than Nutiden, but here’s how this little batch knit up

And a photo of the yarn math, for posterity

So the 1 mm orifice is getting me roughly 4 stitches/inch on size 6 needles.

For comparison, here is the new swatch with a chunky unspun hat I knit last week

The hat is knit up at about 2.25 stiches per inch on (i think) a size 9.

So that’s what’s on the needles at the moment.

Hope to have some Swedish show and tell next week!

Now that we’ve been thoroughly dampened (2.43 inches of rain this week), and the ground is nice and softened up, it seemed the right time to finally get a couple of little volunteer trees planted. These guys have had been hanging out in pots for a couple years, and have come along nicely. So today they both found new homes out in the pasture.

Pretty sure this one is a Mountain Hemlock

and the other is a Port Orford Cedar

They will have to live in cages for quite a while, for their own protection, as the sheep (especially Daphne) would make a quick meal of them without a barrier.

Also got garlic planted- both in the hoophouse and outside.

Inside I’ve got first year plants grown from bulbils of our regular “garden variety” garlic (no idea what it is- gift from a friend many years ago). Just dug and replanted them with adequate spacing so hopefully they will bulb up next year

and a couple new varieties from the farm store (Silver Rose and Red Toch) planted outside (bricks and rock to remind me of the edge of their planting area!)

Nice to have that done. Very nice that the weather has cooperated enough to enjoy being out doing garden work in early Nov!

And, I have a completed pair of socks to show off this week- ends tucked in and everything

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the significant contributions of Boo Kitten to this project.

Some documentation of her being enormously helpful in the final stages.

Always nice when furry friends show an interest and lend a helping paw. 🙂

Not sure what is up next. I am suddenly without anything on the needles!

With a sock and a half to show for travel knitting

from this lovely Jadawoo yarn I picked up in Port Angeles a few weeks ago-

The weather has changed significant while I was away. Freezing at night now, but the afternoons are still warming up. And still warm enough in the hoophouse to dry some freshly washed recent spins

Was beautiful golden light in the pasture this afternoon when I went to spent some time with the sheep gals.

Have to savor these crisp fall days- it looks like we’re in for some mighty soggy weather very soon.

Alrighty folks. That’s about it for me. Have a good week 🙂