Not an ordinary scarf

Back in January, Ted sent an invitation out to selected folks to participate in a Fiber to Shawl exchange. It was an opportunity to get to try out some different fiber and practice my spinning skills. I knew there would be some experienced spinners in the group so I was a little intimidated but I felt that since this was intended for a project I would have a purpose, a time line, and practice. So if some of the yarn ended up as barf, it was still an experience.

I sent in my info and some fiber and received in return this. It was 8 oz of Black Bunny Fibers Emerald City Blue Faced Leicester. Say this with me: mmmmmmm......

There was one thing about it that the picture doesn't really do justice to it. It was green. Vibrant spring green. Or, as I saw it, Kermit the Frog green. It was immediately dubbed the Frog Hair.

At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it so some of my early yarn was rather thin and overspun. As I got used to it, it said it wanted to be heavier. Also, while I was spinning it I was trying to think what would be a good pattern for the yarn. It would be uneven but not too much so, so a lace type pattern was out of the question in my mind. Framed stockinette would have been rather blah and show the flaws of the yarn more than I would like. Plain rib would have been tedious, but a brioche rib was easy and give it enough texture to make it interesting. So I opted for basic brioche. The results were very pleasing.

The more I worked with the fiber, the more it worked with me and the yarn grew more and more consistent. Soon I was finished with the spinning and was knitting away. Would it be enough, I worried. It was worsted weight yarn and only 8 oz of fiber, and being a newbie didn't yet have the instinct built on what I could produce with what quantities. It turned out that my fears were unfounded. It was perfect. Perfect length, perfect width, perfect quantity. And the color was gorgeous.

I contacted Ted to let him know the scarf was done and he sent me the name of my recipient: Mona Schmidt. Ted said, "Go ahead and blog about it." So who is Mona Schmidt? Well, she has published several patterns in IK and has her blog here. She hails from Germany but now lives in Montreal. She's going to have a girl (congratulations!). Her knitting is beautiful!

I'm glad you like the scarf, Mona. It was a pleasure to make it from scratch. So any pics of you with it?

A new challenge

This summer I'm doing a fair bit of traveling which will include some flying time. Since there will be few distractions, I'll be able to sit and work on something fairly complex. One thing I was thinking of taking with me was the Rose of England piece I had started and set aside last year. I picked it up the other day and realized that I would have to tink back a bit to figure out where I was as the stitch count didn't quite match up with what I had marked on the pattern.

When this came up on the Spin Sales list as an eBay auction, I was sorely tempted. It would be a long project though. But I could swatch it. I had yarn I could substitute for the Merino Lace it calls for to see if it works for it. The pic shows you how thin the yarn is. And to tell you how nuts I'm getting on this I'm actually considering doing it in black or white. Black for wearing as evening wear or white for summer or other wear. If I ever get married I want to at least have my veil in my trousseau.