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I am pleased to announce the almost-completion of a project, the Waldo (as in “Where’s Waldo”) Hat:

The pom-pom is too big still, and the hat might be a bit too tall (still have to try it on and see what I think),, but the Waldo hat is essentially complete.

And, it’s kind of Valentine-y, to boot.

Here’s another smidge of kind-of-Valentine-y fiber fresh from the wheel and promptly swatched:

That one is more of a strawberries and  chocoate (or neopolitan ice cream?) type of treat.

Ingredients: Pink-y blended shades of merino top, handcombed milk chocolate and vanilla shetland. Spun separately, plied together, and then cabled. It’s more complicated than what I usually do, and I think I like it, but it is pretty busy.

Oh- and if you are in the area (western WA), I thought I’d pass the word about an upcoming fiber sale:

Whidbey Wool Producers
Fleece Sale

Saturday, March 7th, 2009, 11 to 3 o’clock Held at Crossfire Hill
Farm on Whidbey Island
3537 Day Road, Greenbank, WA 98253

Vendors will have: Corriedale, Alpaca, BFL, Mohair, Romney, Shetland

For more information you can call (360) 678-5625

Denise out.

Look what my happy little rolags grew up to be-

A skein of tweedy, chain-plied yarny goodness!

Ok. That’s all I’ve got.

Just had to share-

Denise

I got the new issue of Spin-Off this week (thanks, Mom), and was pouring over it when I came across an interesting article about knitting with unspun, pre-drafted rolags.

And lo and behold,, I just happened to have a pile of rolags handy,

as I am experimenting with blending fibers to achieve a tweedy-type of effect. So I thought I would give it a try.

It’s kind of a delicate business, and you can’t put any tension on the wool while you’re knitting it or it will come right apart. But the results are pretty cool. Very light and lofty.

It is really soft, and would make a wonderful scarf. Two unspun rolags made a knitted swatch the same size as 4 rolags that I spun and chain-plied:

The raw materials for the blend are a kind of hairy oatmeal-colored shetland roving,

dark brown Romney,

and dribs and drabs of those dyed border leicester locks I bought last weekend. (A little goes a long way with those bright colors!)

Don’t know what inspired me to throw them all together,, but I’m liking the results so far!

Knit on-

Denise

Where did the time go?

Saturday was the Country Living Expo down in Stanwood. I went early to help with registration, so it was kind of a long day. But it’s always a lot of fun.  and lots of fiber folks represented amongst the vendors and the classes offered. I learned about milking sheep from Gretchen, trimming hooves and shearing from Amy, plus raising fiber goats, making cider, and building organic soil fertility.

I forgot to take my camera, so you don’t get to see the silly angora wether getting his feet tended to. Oh well.

I went with only a couple of bucks in my pocket (to suppress fiber buying urges),, but managed to come away with a little bit of something to play with-

Just a few ounces of border leicester  in rich jewel tones (since I don’ do much dying myself). The photo really doesn’t do the colors justice,, but you get the idea.

Was tempted by some targee, but I didn’t have enough cash on-hand to by it (see, I guess the strategy worked, eh?)

Being gone all yesterday of course meant that today it was mostly about playing catchup on housework. And so it goes.

I have to go play with my wool now.

Denise out.