First up, some spinning pictures. Here's a skein that I spun from Optim that I handpainted myself using food colouring. I plied it with a fine thin thread of silk spun from silk caps.
I spun two separate skeins, one with darker colours than the other. The one above is the lighter coloured one. I started knitting up the darker one, and made some baby things. I made a pair of baby mittens, which has been given away. The picture below is of the matching hat that I knitted up. As you can see, the colours are a lot darker than the otehr skein. The yarn also self-stripes (well, kind of..) and I think it's fantastic! It's so soft, I can't wait to spin up more. i don't think I have felt anything quite so luxuriously soft.
I had some white merino top which I used to practice spining and plying. I tried to spin it thicker than I normally spin so that I can see which bits are over/under-spun/plied. It came out ok. It was reasonably consistent but a little overspun. We're having a handpainting class in a few weeks at spinning class. I'll bring this along to hand-paint. I'll take another picture of it when it's been all painted.
The scarf exchange is now closed. These are the participants.
Knit Only groupAmandaSiouxsieKaeMichelleAmyKrystoferKristenJenniferSallyRebeccaJo Matthews (no blog)
Dana (no blog)
Margaret (no blog)
Surprise groupColetteBeverlyLeeJudyRoxJenniferCynthiaJulieBeckyMonaTamAliciaCecileGracieJenaFionaInaDebi (no blog)
Christina (no blog)
Please let me know if I have placed you in the wrong group. You will get the name of the person for whom you have to knit a scarf b the end of this week. Scarves are to be sent out in the last two weeks of September. That way everyone should receive their scarves at around the same time.
Chris and spent the weekend at Canberra. We were there with some friends to visit Adelina, whom we (Chris and I) have not seen since the Bs' wedding last September. It's been nearly a year - WOW! We had a great time. We gathered at Adelina living room and played board games (loudly) well into the night. Lots of fun and laughter was had by all.
When we checked out of the hotel this morning, we heard from the receptionist that someone was clobbered to death across the road from the hotel last night. We had apparently missed all the commotion because we were home late. I think that's the last time I am staying there. I am sure it's not a regular occurence, but sheltered old me certainly no longer feels safe there!
This is where we went today.
It's like a ritual. Every time Chris and I visit Canberra, we visit the markets. This time, I was good. All I bought was 100g of dark brown alpaca fleece.
On the way back, the sky turned a gorgeous colour. I'd love to dye a skein of yarn these colours. It really was quite pretty. The photo does not show it at its best.
