Grocery Shrink

My second yarn

This is 100% merino wool, hand dyed, and spun with lots of variations of thickness. It's an art yarn and I'm pretending I meant to make it this way–grin. I purchased the roving from my new friend, Molly, who listed it on craigslist. It turns out we're near neighbors.

I left it as a single ply so it would stay fluffy and soft. I'm hoping there is enough to knit a chunky moebius cowl with it. There's about 150 yards and my 40" long circular knitting needle set came in the mail today!

It's not perfect but it's mine :).  I spun a naturally colored white single (from a white sheep) and a single from a brown sheep and plied them together. My kids and I worked together to wind it onto a homemade PVC pipe niddy-noddy.  Then we filled the bathtub a couple of inches deep with tepid water, squirted some hair conditioner in, and turned the niddy noddy so it would lay flat.  We dipped it in the water until the yarn was saturated, pulled it out and turned the niddy noddy back to the traditional shape.  We hung it to dry all day in the shower and now I have this lovely yarn!  (All that winding, getting wet and drying was to set the twist.  The conditioner was to soften the yarn, but it's still not too soft.)

I hope to have enough yarn to make a potholder, we'll see!  It's not soft enough for clothes and I could really use a trivet or potholder.  I have a bad habit of catching mine on fire and wool is naturally fire resistant.

Is expensive yarn cramping your craft style? Here's an alternative! Second hand sweaters that have outworn their stylishness can be unravelled and turned into new projects! Follow the instructions from Dawn Prickett http://dawnprickett.blogspot.com/2008/01/recycling-sweaters-for-yarn.html to do this yourself.

This is a great way to get cashmere, angora and other luxury fibers at a steal.

Do you love crochet more than knitting?  Here's a cute pattern from Lyon brand yarn.  http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90268AD.html?noImages=0&utm_source=20100115_Jan15&utm_medium=Emails&utm_campaign=Weeklynewsletter&utm_content=Preview-CardiffCowl&r=1

This one isn't a moebius, but it could be just by adding one twist before joining the intitial chain.  If you wanted it to be more like a shawl, you could make the chain longer and wider before finishing.  I love the delicate drape to this piece and alpaca yarn is so fabulous to work with and wear.  It's as good as cashmere to me.

They are all the rage.  So in about 3 years I should see a lot of them around town.  (That's how it goes in the midwest.)  I found this free pattern online:  http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=94&d_id=16&lang=en 

This is my favorite site for free knitting and crochet patterns.  Their yarn is reasonably priced too.  I was tempted on the yarn for this one, but then decided to make this my first project from the wool/angora (Fritz) blend that I am spinning now.  Moebius knitting can be tricky to start, so I found this great tutorial on youtube.

Now the trick is to locate a size 9 40" long circular needle.  Anyone have a good source?  It seems that 29" is the longest anyone carries locally. {Update-I found 14 different sizes in one set for $20.  This is the store I purchased from:  http://stores.ebay.com/KNITTING-EXPO  They have 100% positive feedback and lots of fun items for a great price.)

The neat thing about a Moebius shawl is that it can be worn as a hood or doubled around for a cowl scarf. 

We have a new addition to our family, a cute German Angora named Fritz.  He is just a baby but already outweighs most cats.  We expect him to be about 12 pounds when fully grown.  He had his first haircut on Saturday at the Wamego Winter Fiber Fest where we picked him up. (More on that lovely day in another post.) Denise, his breeder, clipped him part way and I took him home to finish.  It's a lot harder than it looks!  He still has part of his coat on the sides and on his chest.  I snip at him a bit every day for as long as he can tolerate me.  I've already carded some of his wool in with my sheep wool for nice lofty rolags.  I can't wait to try spinning it.  Here's a picture of him before his haircut.

Last night Darren put my spinning wheel together correctly (When I put it together I had two pieces leftover—I was being frugal with the pieces, ha-ha.)  I watched some YouTube videos last night and started practicing this morning while I listened to violin practice.  It’s fun, but a lot harder than it looks.

My new wheel is an Edjammertje brand wheel from the Netherlands.  I purchased it off ebay for a great price from a seller named Henri.  He was super helpful when I messed up putting it together and his English is amazing.

The Edjammertje looks like this (Photo credit to RooKnits): 

I've had fun finding some fabulous Youtube videos on spinning. Here are three of my favorites:

Before you are ready to spin, you will need commercially prepared fiber, or you can prepare your own.  I like the rolag video by Ruth Macgregor