Colour Comfort

I finished and wore a new crochet hat yesterday. I used the "sea green" handspun which was really a teal colour and came across more blue than green to some of my readers. Whatever colour you call it, I was very happy with my new hat. I was so happy with it that I immediately started another one. This one is definitely blue.



It's Morris' Empire superwash merino in "imperial blue". The yarn is deliciously soft. Soft enough to make my fingers happy and I'm fussy that way since I'm used to my own handspun merino. I've put the two colours together in the pic to try to show up the difference, but the teal handspun still lacks the liveliness it shows in the flesh. As we're heading towards the winter solstice this week, I'm stocking up on warm things to brighten the darker days. 

Small, Soft, Warm

I knitted up this little neck wrap this week:It's a combination of merino and silk, hand-dyed in purples. The forecast here is for a maximum of 12 degrees today, with showers and possible hail. I may be looking for something just a bit more bulky to wrap around my neck, but the first sunny day I'll be wearing it. It's so soft and warm and the colours are even richer than they appear in the pic.

Miniature

I started this miniature project yesterday morning. I've been working at spinning a suitable yarn to mend an heirloom baby blanket. My early attempts on my wheel weren't fine enough and I started to get frustrated with myself. Then I thought of using a drop spindle. I don't need much yarn at all, and I love the control I can achieve, especially with my lightest spindle. First I did a tiny little sample just to see how it would go. Then I did a bit more, L has that, and is about to pull out her knitting needles to match the pattern of the original blanket. That left me with a ridiculously small amount of a ridiculously fine handspun merino. It's hardly even a couple of grams, but I couldn't let it go to waste. I decided to play with it:For reference, that little ball of yarn is about the size of my finger-tip and the needles are 2 mm. It feels really strange working at this scale--and yet I know that people make entire shawls out of fine yarns like this. I'll be proud of myself if I can achieve a bookmark.

Freeform

Something about all the activity around here has set off a creative bubble in my mind. I'm working on a piece of freeform knitting. It's part of a larger project, but this is the part that fits onto tiny knitting needles while I sit in the armchair. Hmmm, I think that armchair may need to be moved to my new studio if it gets built as I hope it will be. Anyway, the freeform knitting currently looks like this: The yarn is spun from some merino S had stored in her back shed. I've washed it and am pretty much spinning it as it comes. I spun and plied some and knitted some garter stitch. Then I spun some more, but didn't ply it. I'm knitting it as a live single, so it's got lots of energy and wants to head off in one direction. It's allowed to do that. I've got a bit more on a bobbin which I'm spinning today. It's a bit thicker and more slubby. I'll see how I feel about it this evening and add it to the mix. Just now I need to stop and sort through my papers. I need some documents so the planning application can be lodged for the shed project. That's not allowed to be freeform!