Blending fun for Christmas exchange

This past weekend was our family's traditional Cousin's Christmas party. My siblings who live close get together and play games, eat lots of food, and exchange gifts between our children, hence cousin's Christmas. The cousins that live further away are also included in the gift exchange. They just don't get the chance to hang out and play games with us on that day.

This past weekend was also the weekend of the spinner's Christmas exchange. For the exchange this year, I dyed some of the "skirts" from Notlwonk . I had five piles of fiber spread out across the couch. Each pile had the three colors of wool, the alpaca, and the dyed purple silk. I carded the green wool by itself, with the yellow wool I added the alpaca, and with the purple wool I added the silk.




In the picture of the colors next to each other, you can see the silk (it's the really wavy stuff in the purple on the far left).







I really like how the blend turned out. Lou, who was my exchange partner, also liked it and said she was going to make something for just her out of it. I have enough of the materials left that I can spin some myself and make something also. I think it will be my next project, when I have a free wheel.


This is a picture of the completed mitts. I have nine completed pair, one single mitt, and one & a half pair still left to knit. I needed to take this picture though so I could send away the two black pair in the center. I can't believe Christmas is only eight days away! There is still s-o-o-o-o much to do.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Carding fun

On Friday, I took this slightly felted roving (it had been in the indigo dye and didn't take, so I redyed it last Sunday) and tried to predraft it. The predrafting didn't work. So I tore off little sections and carded them together. The blends turned out really well. And it is spinning up very nicely. I had to take off what I was spinning on the Scholar and spin some of this blend up.


The blend here is kind of dark, but it is turning out really well. From the picture above, you can tell there is blue, green, orange and a little bit of purple in the mix. Some batts are turning out more blue and some are turning out more orange, but they are all blending really well.

On Saturday I wasn't feeling really well, so I spent most of the day on the bed knitting. I finished knitting the shawl and now need to block it. Once it's blocked I'll put a picture up. I started the second Christmas stocking. Yes, we got another wedding invitation, so I really need to complete the other one. I turned the heel by Saturday night, did a couple of sections last night and only have two more color changes to do and it is finished. The two stockings don't match exactly, but they are close enough.

Enjoy the Labor Day! Happy knitting & spinning